On Monday, I had the day off work & went to Huggy's place again for another day of gaming.
As seems to be customary between us, we warmed up with two games of Mr Jack - one as the killer & one as the Detective - both of us winning as the latter, while Mr Jack was coincidentally identified as John Smith (the guys who can switch on/off streetlights) both times.
We then progress onto Dominion again; 3 games using the other three suggested start-ups in the rulebook - Big Money, Interaction & Village Square. Huggy won the 1st (Village Square) convincingly with a Gold-heavy deck, followed by a draw on 25pts apiece with the Big Money set-up. Huggy went for a Gold-heavy deck again. Finally I levelled things by winning quickly on the Interaction set-up.
We then had another go of Le Havre; I went for an all-out building strategy & bought several buildings from the Town which I thought were going to useful to either of us; Huggy ended up paying me plenty of Francs and/or food for this while he pursued a ship-building strategy. End game got tense as he was able to build a couple of the Steel ships & paid off 3 loans before the final action. Final score was 206-186 in my favour, but closer than both of us had expected.
We then decided to try out Through The Ages:A Story Of Civilisation, a game I had wanted to try properly for some time & one I thought Huggy may like. This is a complex civilisation-building game which is entire card-driven & mapless as you attempt to guide your initial civilisation from Antiquity through to Age I, II & III; taking on Leaders, Wonders, Technologies & Military amongst other possibilities. We started off with the basic game (Antiquity & Age I) to learn the ropes - this was over fairly quick with a close win for me.
Huggy then wanted to try the Advanced game, which I was slightly hesitant to as I hadn't digested the rules properly yet, so this was more of a 'feel our way through' attempt. We certainly enjoyed it a lot more, although we didn't explore the military aspect much as we were still trying to work out the best way of improving our civilisations. Again, this resulted in another win for me (without having any kind of strategy!) but we both agreed it had great potential to become a favourite of ours & should play again soon.
Another great day - thanks Huggy!
Friday 26 December 2008
Sunday 21 December 2008
Gaming with Huggy - Day 1 of 2
Saturday 20th Dec - I went to Huggy's for a few hours of gaming. As usual, it was full of banter between ourselves, attempting to talk down each other's attempts of winning. In brief, this is what got played:-
Mr Jack (x2)
Game 1: Huggy wins as the Detective on Turn 10 (Mr Jack was Sir William Gull).
Game 2: Matt wins as the Detective on Turn 10 (Mr Jack was Sherlock Holmes).
Fast Flowing Forest Fellers (x2)
Game 1: Matt wins.
Game 2: Huggy wins.
Dominion (x2)
Huggy was new to this, so I explained the rules & gave a few sample turns before we played a couple of the pre-determined 10 Kingdom card sets in the rulebook...
Game 1: Matt wins (First Game set-up).
Game 2: Matt wins (Size Distortion set-up).
Le Havre
Matt wins 166-151 using a strategy that mainly used buildings available to generate Francs. Huggy was building more buildings than I was.
Talisman 4th Edition Revised
Huggy reaches the Crown Of Command with the Prophettess & killing everyone else. Huggy showed his aging years with this trip down memory lane!
Day 2 is tomorrow - watch this space for a summary.
Mr Jack (x2)
Game 1: Huggy wins as the Detective on Turn 10 (Mr Jack was Sir William Gull).
Game 2: Matt wins as the Detective on Turn 10 (Mr Jack was Sherlock Holmes).
Fast Flowing Forest Fellers (x2)
Game 1: Matt wins.
Game 2: Huggy wins.
Dominion (x2)
Huggy was new to this, so I explained the rules & gave a few sample turns before we played a couple of the pre-determined 10 Kingdom card sets in the rulebook...
Game 1: Matt wins (First Game set-up).
Game 2: Matt wins (Size Distortion set-up).
Le Havre
Matt wins 166-151 using a strategy that mainly used buildings available to generate Francs. Huggy was building more buildings than I was.
Talisman 4th Edition Revised
Huggy reaches the Crown Of Command with the Prophettess & killing everyone else. Huggy showed his aging years with this trip down memory lane!
Day 2 is tomorrow - watch this space for a summary.
Saturday 20 December 2008
Twilight Struggle - Parts 1 & 2...
Me & Keith arrange two games of Twilight Struggle the penultimate week before Christmas - nothing like a vicious struggle for global domination to put you in the mood of festive shennigans!
This is, at the moment, easily my favourite game despite my affection for Euros such as Pillars Of The Earth, Power Grid & Le Havre. Perhaps it has something to do with the elegant, yet ingenious card system as I seem to gravitate towards games that have cards for some reason.
Keith was new to Twilight Struggle & after a run-through of the rules, we decided he'd be the USSR in the first game since there is something more of a slight advantage to the USSR in the early stages. I was hoping that if I could hold out until the end of the Mid war, then the balance might shift to the US during Late war.
I don't remember a lot about the actually development of card play, but Asia was a massive tug-of-war for control of countries. I had started a build-up in SE Asia during the end of Early war, since I knew the SE Asia scoring would be coming up in the next 1-3 turns & this can yield quite a few points. Keith was countering a lot of my moves & soon swung control of the region in his favour - I began to wonder if he had been dealt the Asia scoring card on Turn 3, but it turned out he thought I had it! Oh well, this set him in good steed as he scored quite a fair few points when the SE Asia scoring card came up. I think Keith also had a slightly better position in Europe as well, so I wasn't feeling as confident as I'd hoped.
The second reason this was memorable is because twice, when Keith was 2 or 3 points shy of a 20pts victory, he played a card on the Space Race track & a separate event card which both needed a 50-50 dice roll to get the points... both times he rolled wrongly! I was feeling somewhat awkward for him as if the game ended in a victory for me, it was feel a bit of a lucky win iven his back luck. However, as we enter Turn 8 & Late war he was able to degrade DEFCON to Level 2 with 'Cuban Missle Crisis' followed by 'Wargames', of which the latter allows you to end the game after handing your opponent 6vps. He was comfortably in the lead, so did just that.
Excellent game, though not quite as good as his shortbread again!
We had a 2nd game two days later & Keith decided he wanted to try the US. This one seemed a much tenser affair with the USSR (courtesy of me!) aggressively attacking Europe & quickly rolling in the VPs. SE Asia was yet again closely contested although the USSR didn't quite get as many points this time. The USSR also took strong control over South & Central America, so Keith was understandably looking a bit edgy!He did manage to pull back control of Europe, which I hadn't notice under excitment of a wee bit of clever card play that would have let me be one card away from victory... then he played the Europe scoring card & scored about 9 or 10pts. I'm sure my face was a picture when I realised what he had done *tut tut*!
The game progressed until Turn 10, with mostly points slowly going to the USSR once more. We were hit by deja vu as the 'Cuban Missle Crisis'/'Wargames' combination ended the game yet again with a comfortable win for the USSR.
Ending the game on two consecutive plays in that manner was a bit bizarre for me because, in about 15 games, I've never had a game end like that - then it happens twice in a row!
Still, two excellent games played.
This is, at the moment, easily my favourite game despite my affection for Euros such as Pillars Of The Earth, Power Grid & Le Havre. Perhaps it has something to do with the elegant, yet ingenious card system as I seem to gravitate towards games that have cards for some reason.
Keith was new to Twilight Struggle & after a run-through of the rules, we decided he'd be the USSR in the first game since there is something more of a slight advantage to the USSR in the early stages. I was hoping that if I could hold out until the end of the Mid war, then the balance might shift to the US during Late war.
I don't remember a lot about the actually development of card play, but Asia was a massive tug-of-war for control of countries. I had started a build-up in SE Asia during the end of Early war, since I knew the SE Asia scoring would be coming up in the next 1-3 turns & this can yield quite a few points. Keith was countering a lot of my moves & soon swung control of the region in his favour - I began to wonder if he had been dealt the Asia scoring card on Turn 3, but it turned out he thought I had it! Oh well, this set him in good steed as he scored quite a fair few points when the SE Asia scoring card came up. I think Keith also had a slightly better position in Europe as well, so I wasn't feeling as confident as I'd hoped.
The second reason this was memorable is because twice, when Keith was 2 or 3 points shy of a 20pts victory, he played a card on the Space Race track & a separate event card which both needed a 50-50 dice roll to get the points... both times he rolled wrongly! I was feeling somewhat awkward for him as if the game ended in a victory for me, it was feel a bit of a lucky win iven his back luck. However, as we enter Turn 8 & Late war he was able to degrade DEFCON to Level 2 with 'Cuban Missle Crisis' followed by 'Wargames', of which the latter allows you to end the game after handing your opponent 6vps. He was comfortably in the lead, so did just that.
Excellent game, though not quite as good as his shortbread again!
We had a 2nd game two days later & Keith decided he wanted to try the US. This one seemed a much tenser affair with the USSR (courtesy of me!) aggressively attacking Europe & quickly rolling in the VPs. SE Asia was yet again closely contested although the USSR didn't quite get as many points this time. The USSR also took strong control over South & Central America, so Keith was understandably looking a bit edgy!He did manage to pull back control of Europe, which I hadn't notice under excitment of a wee bit of clever card play that would have let me be one card away from victory... then he played the Europe scoring card & scored about 9 or 10pts. I'm sure my face was a picture when I realised what he had done *tut tut*!
The game progressed until Turn 10, with mostly points slowly going to the USSR once more. We were hit by deja vu as the 'Cuban Missle Crisis'/'Wargames' combination ended the game yet again with a comfortable win for the USSR.
Ending the game on two consecutive plays in that manner was a bit bizarre for me because, in about 15 games, I've never had a game end like that - then it happens twice in a row!
Still, two excellent games played.
Saturday 13 December 2008
11th December - Le Havre
4 of us played Le Havre on Thursday - me, Keith, Andre & Nigel. Me & Keith had played it the last time I brought it to the Legion; both Andre & Nigel were new to it. After a rules explanation - the rules regarding only buildings proposal & only buying town buildings seem to confuse people at first - we got going.
Everyone apart from me got grain & cattle early on & soon began harvesting at the end of the Rounds; I had decided to build at least the Marketplace & buy the Construction Firm early on as these seem to be good early investments, as well as getting a Ship as soon as the first Wharf entered play (which was built by Keith). Andre was suffering by the end of the game, having to pick up as much as 4 loans in the last few turns & getting quite a few minus points. Poor Nigel seemed quite unsure & only built two buildings the whole game as well as having far too much grain & cattle to make good use of.
It is difficult to say if anyone was following a strategy; Le Havre is currently a game which I find I am still playing along the lines of 'depends what happens' at time, though as I played I definitely was thinking a few turns ahead, though there were some times when I did what I thought of as the best option available. So I won't go into too much detail here!
Special buildings (in play & ownership):-
Tavern, Coal Trader & Zoo (town), Farm & Bakery (Matt) .
Standard buildings (ownership that I remember of):-
Andre - Joinery, Abbatoir, Brickworks, Wharf, Steel Mill(?), Black market.
Matt - Smokehouse, Hardware Store, Grocery Market, Marketplace & Ironworks.
Keith - Wharf, Bakehouse, Arts Centre & Local Court.
Nigel - Fishery & Shipping Line.
________________________________________________
Final score - me = 119, Keith = 114, Andre = 67(?), Nigel = ??? but the lowest.
We all like this, though Nigel is unsure. But Le Havre is one of those games that will appeal to less players.
Everyone apart from me got grain & cattle early on & soon began harvesting at the end of the Rounds; I had decided to build at least the Marketplace & buy the Construction Firm early on as these seem to be good early investments, as well as getting a Ship as soon as the first Wharf entered play (which was built by Keith). Andre was suffering by the end of the game, having to pick up as much as 4 loans in the last few turns & getting quite a few minus points. Poor Nigel seemed quite unsure & only built two buildings the whole game as well as having far too much grain & cattle to make good use of.
It is difficult to say if anyone was following a strategy; Le Havre is currently a game which I find I am still playing along the lines of 'depends what happens' at time, though as I played I definitely was thinking a few turns ahead, though there were some times when I did what I thought of as the best option available. So I won't go into too much detail here!
Special buildings (in play & ownership):-
Tavern, Coal Trader & Zoo (town), Farm & Bakery (Matt) .
Standard buildings (ownership that I remember of):-
Andre - Joinery, Abbatoir, Brickworks, Wharf, Steel Mill(?), Black market.
Matt - Smokehouse, Hardware Store, Grocery Market, Marketplace & Ironworks.
Keith - Wharf, Bakehouse, Arts Centre & Local Court.
Nigel - Fishery & Shipping Line.
________________________________________________
Final score - me = 119, Keith = 114, Andre = 67(?), Nigel = ??? but the lowest.
We all like this, though Nigel is unsure. But Le Havre is one of those games that will appeal to less players.
9th December - Agricola again
I went to Keith's place for some more Agricola since we wanted to have another crack at it. Once I found Keith's place, I immediately thought he was already living in a Stone Hut - what could be more thematic than that?!
Game 1 - this was almost an identical replica of Keith's first game the week before; he quickly built a 3rd room in his Wooden Hut & got an extra family member immediately. He built his pastures & got some sheep in there, which worked out well as he played the Spindle (1 extra food in the Harvest for 3 sheep; 2 food for 5 sheep) for a Minor Improvement quite early on. Using the Seasonal Worker (Occupation) has was soon taking vegatables & sowing quite a lot of them for food. He didn't grow any grain the whole game & incurred -1pt, though he did manage to covert his Wooden Hut up to a Stone Hut & get 4 family members by the end of the game. He did unfortunately end with 5 unused spaces again!
Me; I decided to go for a different Major Improvement strategy to do something else than the Cooking Hearth (which I seem to find myself drifting into doing too often for my liking); I had an Oven (Cooking Oven?) in my Minor Improvement hand which would allow me to convert 2 grain into 5 food each, so I bought the Clay Oven (Major Imp) & trashed it for the Oven in my Minor Imp hand. I waited on building a 3rd room until I had enough wood for 3 stables, which I then laid down & later fenced all 3 in. I focused on having a bit of everything by game end...
Final Scoring:-(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/Sheep/Pigs/Cattle/Unused spaces/Fenced stables/Clay hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/ Points for cards/Bonus points)
Keith - 1/3/-1/4/3/2/3/-5/1/0/6/12/3/0 = 32
Matt - 2/3/3/1/3/3/3/-2/3/3/0/9/3/0 = 34
Close game!
Game 2 - this one was much more interesting. I had a brilliant combination pair of Minor Improvements (Fishing Rod & Raft) that was going to allow me to pick up 2 extra food when I used the Fishing action space (3 extra food from round 6), so I was eaily picking up 5-7 food each time I used this! Keith again was going to expand his Hut asap for a 3rd room & 3rd family member,... until I blocked him by taking the Reed he would have needed for the expansion. Clearly, this is Damen's influence! I picked up the Well and, later on, the Basketmaker's Workshop as Major Improvements - a lot of extra points. Keith decided to try & cover his whole farm for no empty spaces & played a good Minor Improvement that gave him 3 bonus points for covering 8 spaces with pastures - this meant he had one massive pasture with only a few sheep in it; very free-range stuff! We both got to a Stone Hut - I had my Conservator in play as an Occupation (may convert a Wooden Hut to a Stone Hut without need to go to a Clay Hut first), so that came in handy.
We both had a very good rounded out farm each, but I had a couple of minus points...
Final Scoring:-(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/Sheep/Pigs/Cattle/Unused spaces/Fenced stables/Clay hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/ Points for cards/Bonus points)
Keith - 3/3/4/2/2/2/3/0/1/0/6/12/1/3 = 42
Matt - 4/3/2/4/3/3/-1/-2/0/0/6/9/7/2 = 40
Again, very closely fought (or should that be farmed?) & thanks to Keith for the shortbread & lager!
Game 1 - this was almost an identical replica of Keith's first game the week before; he quickly built a 3rd room in his Wooden Hut & got an extra family member immediately. He built his pastures & got some sheep in there, which worked out well as he played the Spindle (1 extra food in the Harvest for 3 sheep; 2 food for 5 sheep) for a Minor Improvement quite early on. Using the Seasonal Worker (Occupation) has was soon taking vegatables & sowing quite a lot of them for food. He didn't grow any grain the whole game & incurred -1pt, though he did manage to covert his Wooden Hut up to a Stone Hut & get 4 family members by the end of the game. He did unfortunately end with 5 unused spaces again!
Me; I decided to go for a different Major Improvement strategy to do something else than the Cooking Hearth (which I seem to find myself drifting into doing too often for my liking); I had an Oven (Cooking Oven?) in my Minor Improvement hand which would allow me to convert 2 grain into 5 food each, so I bought the Clay Oven (Major Imp) & trashed it for the Oven in my Minor Imp hand. I waited on building a 3rd room until I had enough wood for 3 stables, which I then laid down & later fenced all 3 in. I focused on having a bit of everything by game end...
Final Scoring:-(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/Sheep/Pigs/Cattle/Unused spaces/Fenced stables/Clay hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/ Points for cards/Bonus points)
Keith - 1/3/-1/4/3/2/3/-5/1/0/6/12/3/0 = 32
Matt - 2/3/3/1/3/3/3/-2/3/3/0/9/3/0 = 34
Close game!
Game 2 - this one was much more interesting. I had a brilliant combination pair of Minor Improvements (Fishing Rod & Raft) that was going to allow me to pick up 2 extra food when I used the Fishing action space (3 extra food from round 6), so I was eaily picking up 5-7 food each time I used this! Keith again was going to expand his Hut asap for a 3rd room & 3rd family member,... until I blocked him by taking the Reed he would have needed for the expansion. Clearly, this is Damen's influence! I picked up the Well and, later on, the Basketmaker's Workshop as Major Improvements - a lot of extra points. Keith decided to try & cover his whole farm for no empty spaces & played a good Minor Improvement that gave him 3 bonus points for covering 8 spaces with pastures - this meant he had one massive pasture with only a few sheep in it; very free-range stuff! We both got to a Stone Hut - I had my Conservator in play as an Occupation (may convert a Wooden Hut to a Stone Hut without need to go to a Clay Hut first), so that came in handy.
We both had a very good rounded out farm each, but I had a couple of minus points...
Final Scoring:-(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/Sheep/Pigs/Cattle/Unused spaces/Fenced stables/Clay hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/ Points for cards/Bonus points)
Keith - 3/3/4/2/2/2/3/0/1/0/6/12/1/3 = 42
Matt - 4/3/2/4/3/3/-1/-2/0/0/6/9/7/2 = 40
Again, very closely fought (or should that be farmed?) & thanks to Keith for the shortbread & lager!
Sunday 7 December 2008
Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O... (Agricola session)
Last Thursday, 4 of of us settled down to play Agricola - me, David, Keith & Paul B - while a game of Ticket To Ride:Marklin was going on. David had played once, Keith & Paul were new to Agricola. I was especially looking forward to it as I hadn't played in 2 or 3 months.
After a rules explanation, the Occupation & Improvement cards were dealt. I looked at them & wasn't feeling to confident of my chances; no obvious synergy anywhere! Expecting wood to be a bit difficult to come by in the early game as I was last in the turn order & not ready to take the Starting Player token & play a Minor Improvement just yet, I played the best Occupation I thought I had; the Clay Deliveryman (receive one clay from Rounds 6 to 14), as I was intending to renovate to a Clay Hut as soon as the appropriate Round card came up in Stage 2 & then built the extra room(s) from there, rather than slug it out for the wood.
Keith was very quick in expanding his Wooden Hut & getting his 3rd family member in Round 7 - David beat me to this in Round 8 & I had to wait until Round 9 to get my 3rd. My farm was looking a bit empty towards the end of the game with two fields & two stables (both with a pig inside) & I was starting to feel somewhat adrift off the pace; David already had a Stone Hut (or was already in the process of doing so), Paul had 2 or 3 pastures with sheep & pigs, Keith was also making a bit of progress with a pasture or field here & there, but perhaps also looking a bit empty. All of us had one Major Improvement & various numbers of Occupations/Minor Improvements.
As is often the case in Agricola, things seemed to pick up very quickly in the late stages of the games; I suddenly had 5 fields (reaping grain & vegs left & right), 2 pastures filled with animals & a 3rd stable filling up my farm... Keith suddenly gained 5 family members, but had still had quite a lot of unused spaces... Paul had a 3rd massive pasture & a Stone Hut... David still had his Stone Hut & something of everything.
Final Scoring:-
(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/Sheep/Pigs/Cattle/Unused spaces/Fenced stables/Clay hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/ Points for cards/Bonus points)
David - 2/3/2/2/3/1/-1/-1/0/0/8/12/2/0 = 33
Keith - 2/2/1/1/1/-1/2/-5/1/4/0/15/6/0 = 29
Paul - 1/3/-1/2/2/2/2/-4/3/0/6/12/4/2 = 34
Matt - 4/2/3/4/2/2/-1/-1/2/4/0/15/2/0 = 37
After a rules explanation, the Occupation & Improvement cards were dealt. I looked at them & wasn't feeling to confident of my chances; no obvious synergy anywhere! Expecting wood to be a bit difficult to come by in the early game as I was last in the turn order & not ready to take the Starting Player token & play a Minor Improvement just yet, I played the best Occupation I thought I had; the Clay Deliveryman (receive one clay from Rounds 6 to 14), as I was intending to renovate to a Clay Hut as soon as the appropriate Round card came up in Stage 2 & then built the extra room(s) from there, rather than slug it out for the wood.
Keith was very quick in expanding his Wooden Hut & getting his 3rd family member in Round 7 - David beat me to this in Round 8 & I had to wait until Round 9 to get my 3rd. My farm was looking a bit empty towards the end of the game with two fields & two stables (both with a pig inside) & I was starting to feel somewhat adrift off the pace; David already had a Stone Hut (or was already in the process of doing so), Paul had 2 or 3 pastures with sheep & pigs, Keith was also making a bit of progress with a pasture or field here & there, but perhaps also looking a bit empty. All of us had one Major Improvement & various numbers of Occupations/Minor Improvements.
As is often the case in Agricola, things seemed to pick up very quickly in the late stages of the games; I suddenly had 5 fields (reaping grain & vegs left & right), 2 pastures filled with animals & a 3rd stable filling up my farm... Keith suddenly gained 5 family members, but had still had quite a lot of unused spaces... Paul had a 3rd massive pasture & a Stone Hut... David still had his Stone Hut & something of everything.
Final Scoring:-
(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/Sheep/Pigs/Cattle/Unused spaces/Fenced stables/Clay hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/ Points for cards/Bonus points)
David - 2/3/2/2/3/1/-1/-1/0/0/8/12/2/0 = 33
Keith - 2/2/1/1/1/-1/2/-5/1/4/0/15/6/0 = 29
Paul - 1/3/-1/2/2/2/2/-4/3/0/6/12/4/2 = 34
Matt - 4/2/3/4/2/2/-1/-1/2/4/0/15/2/0 = 37
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