Played a good crop of games recently, but time (or the lack of it) prevents me from writing a full review for everything so here is a condensed list:-
Through The Ages x2
Le Havre
Dominion x2
Age Of Steam
Age Of Steam is a new one to me; I played it for the first time last week & loved it - even though I did terribly & Huggy declared my score was 'embarrassing' & that his 'Auntie Mildred could have done better'! I really like the difficult decisions to make over how many shares to take each turn as taking to many could mean you'll pay out too much to the shareholders when calculating income & debt. Take too few & you may not have enough to do what you want each turn. Genius! AoS is also very competitive as each player wants to get his/her tracks into the best positions on the map - especially if there is a lack of a coloured city or cubes - as it may force other players using their tracks to deliver goods & thus bumping up their opponent's income.
Now I know why they say this is Martin Wallace's Magnus Opus!
Monday 9 March 2009
Sunday 1 March 2009
27th Feb (Julian & Ester's)
Not content with just the previous evening's game, I went to Julian & Ester's for some more gaming on Friday evening. We first played a quick game of Kingsburg, which I really like, but J & E weren't as keen. I won by a clear margin.
Next we played the combined game of Zooloretto & Aquaretto which we had spoken about trying since I had the former & they had the latter. I had wondered whether it would feel like too much to contend with since this is effectively two games as one. Surprisingly, it works quite well - the rules remains the same for Zooloretto under its rules & Aquaretto under its rules, but when you place tiles in the trucks at least one truck need to be filled with Z tiles & another with A tiles. Also, you cannot put Z tiles with A tiles (have you noticed I'm fed up with typing the same names already?!) so there is an extra element of considering which tiles you want to place & there can be difficult decisions when more than one truck has tiles you'd really like & which you'd need most.
The game did last a long time but we enjoyed it & I did not end my 100% losing record to Zooloretto/Aquaretto to them - Ester won on 53pts, Julian had 51pts & I had 47pts.
We then got St Petersburg out for J&E to try, but it didn't seem to be going down well & we agreed to switch to something else. So we had a couple of games of Felix:The Cat In The Sack. This is a fun & quick game of blind-bidding & has some screwage factor involved. The three of us (plus a dummy 4th player) gets a hand of 10 cards (one is removed at random before the start) with cats, dogs & a rabbit. There are 7 cats with points of 15, 11, 8, 5, 3, -5 & -8, one rabbit with 0 points & two dogs (used to scare away cats). Each round, all players choose a card (random for the dummy) to put face-down in a row & the first one is put face up. The players then bid to buy the whole row; when the first player passes, he/she takes their bid back & gets 4 more coins. The 2nd card in line is then turned face-up & the remaining two players bid - the person who passes also takes their bid back & gets 6 coins. The winner pays his/her bid to the bank & turns the two face-down card up - if a Big dog has been played, it scares away the highest value cat. If a Small dog is played, it scares away the biggest negative (or lowest positive) valued cats; if there are two or more dogs, they all cancel each other out. The game proceeds for 9 Rounds in total & the winner is the one with the most points & money remaining combined. I won one & Ester won the 2nd.
Next we played the combined game of Zooloretto & Aquaretto which we had spoken about trying since I had the former & they had the latter. I had wondered whether it would feel like too much to contend with since this is effectively two games as one. Surprisingly, it works quite well - the rules remains the same for Zooloretto under its rules & Aquaretto under its rules, but when you place tiles in the trucks at least one truck need to be filled with Z tiles & another with A tiles. Also, you cannot put Z tiles with A tiles (have you noticed I'm fed up with typing the same names already?!) so there is an extra element of considering which tiles you want to place & there can be difficult decisions when more than one truck has tiles you'd really like & which you'd need most.
The game did last a long time but we enjoyed it & I did not end my 100% losing record to Zooloretto/Aquaretto to them - Ester won on 53pts, Julian had 51pts & I had 47pts.
We then got St Petersburg out for J&E to try, but it didn't seem to be going down well & we agreed to switch to something else. So we had a couple of games of Felix:The Cat In The Sack. This is a fun & quick game of blind-bidding & has some screwage factor involved. The three of us (plus a dummy 4th player) gets a hand of 10 cards (one is removed at random before the start) with cats, dogs & a rabbit. There are 7 cats with points of 15, 11, 8, 5, 3, -5 & -8, one rabbit with 0 points & two dogs (used to scare away cats). Each round, all players choose a card (random for the dummy) to put face-down in a row & the first one is put face up. The players then bid to buy the whole row; when the first player passes, he/she takes their bid back & gets 4 more coins. The 2nd card in line is then turned face-up & the remaining two players bid - the person who passes also takes their bid back & gets 6 coins. The winner pays his/her bid to the bank & turns the two face-down card up - if a Big dog has been played, it scares away the highest value cat. If a Small dog is played, it scares away the biggest negative (or lowest positive) valued cats; if there are two or more dogs, they all cancel each other out. The game proceeds for 9 Rounds in total & the winner is the one with the most points & money remaining combined. I won one & Ester won the 2nd.
26th Feb - down on the farm again...
A couple of weeks ago (or three); me, Nick, Keith, Julian & Ester had played Agricola. We all wanted another game, so had arranged it for last Thursday. Nasty Nick had borrowed my copy of the 'Gric the week before to take a proper look at the cards & Paul B let Nick's secret out; he had been practising! Apparently it was a couple of games, but who knows what the truth really is...!
I decided to try out a combination of the E, I & K decks; dealing out 3 from E, 2 from I & 2 from K for each player's Occupations & Minor Improvements. The early part of the game was notable because the action boards suddenly filled up with bonus goods/food. Nick had a couple of great Minor Improvements that were also cheap; Private Forest (cost 2 Food - get 1 Wood on each even-numbered space) & Chicken Coop (cost 2 Wood/2Clay & 1 Reed - get one Food for the next 8 Rounds), while Ester also played the Pig Whisperer Occupation (giving her 3 Boar at various Rounds).
At first, it seemed as though me & Nick were doing better out of the 5 of us; I had got a good field/grain supply & conversion (to Food) going courtsey of my Field Watchman (when you take 1 Grain, you may also Plow one Field) & my Wood-Fired Oven (convert any number of Grain into 3 Food with the Bake Bread action). Nick was swimming in resources - I can't remember if he had also played any further cards or whether he had been taking them when they had stock-piled at least once, but whatever he was doing was clearly working so I had no doubt he would be putting them to good use! Keith, Julian & Ester were also chugging along fine without looking like they were really struggling.
Now, I don't know what happen to me but it somehow went belly-up for me at some point. Perhaps I hadn't developed my farm enough or didn't have enough Family members, but suddenly it seemed as though I had too many things to do and - the horror! - my Food supply looked like drying up as I was committing my workers to other actions than Bake Bread. In an effort to salvage my farm, I played the Ceramics Minor Improvement (receive 2 Food, the Pottery (Major Imp.) now costs you nothing) & this is where I think I was beginning to have a bad day; somehow, I missed the words 'costs you nothing' & so didn't pick up the Pottery until near the end of the game - D'OH! That would have been a big, big help had I taken it earlier. To make things worse, on the penultimate turn, I forgot all about Food & did other actions... then realised I didnit have any Food for my two Family members. Nada, zilch, zero! So I had to give up FOUR Grain to feed them & then on the last turn, I took lots of Clay which gave me 2 Food & 3 Bonus points with the Pottery. I still had to take TWO begging cards!!! I felt like throwing my toys out of the pram as a result of my own stupidity...!!!
By game end, both Nick & Keith had got a larger Stone Hut with 4 or 5 Family members each & approximately the same number of unused spaces. Though I thought it was most likely Keith had won since he had something of everything & Nick had no Fields, Grain or Vegetables...
Final scoring;
(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/ Sheep/Boar/Cattle/Unused Spaces/Fenced Stables/Clay Hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/Points for cards/Bonus points)
1st - Keith: (2/4/1/1/2/2/1/-3/2/0/6/15/1/0) = 34pts.
2nd - Nick: (-1/4/-1/-1/2/1/1/-4/2/0/8/12/8/2) = 31pts.
3rd - Ester: (2/4/1/-1/1/4/1/-2/1/2/0/6/2/0) = 21pts.
4th - Matt: (3/2/-1/-1/2/3/-1/-4/2/3/0/6/4/-3) = 15pts.
5th - Julian: (-1/4/-1/-1/3/-1/3/-5/2/0/0/6/1/0) = 10pts.
I decided to try out a combination of the E, I & K decks; dealing out 3 from E, 2 from I & 2 from K for each player's Occupations & Minor Improvements. The early part of the game was notable because the action boards suddenly filled up with bonus goods/food. Nick had a couple of great Minor Improvements that were also cheap; Private Forest (cost 2 Food - get 1 Wood on each even-numbered space) & Chicken Coop (cost 2 Wood/2Clay & 1 Reed - get one Food for the next 8 Rounds), while Ester also played the Pig Whisperer Occupation (giving her 3 Boar at various Rounds).
At first, it seemed as though me & Nick were doing better out of the 5 of us; I had got a good field/grain supply & conversion (to Food) going courtsey of my Field Watchman (when you take 1 Grain, you may also Plow one Field) & my Wood-Fired Oven (convert any number of Grain into 3 Food with the Bake Bread action). Nick was swimming in resources - I can't remember if he had also played any further cards or whether he had been taking them when they had stock-piled at least once, but whatever he was doing was clearly working so I had no doubt he would be putting them to good use! Keith, Julian & Ester were also chugging along fine without looking like they were really struggling.
Now, I don't know what happen to me but it somehow went belly-up for me at some point. Perhaps I hadn't developed my farm enough or didn't have enough Family members, but suddenly it seemed as though I had too many things to do and - the horror! - my Food supply looked like drying up as I was committing my workers to other actions than Bake Bread. In an effort to salvage my farm, I played the Ceramics Minor Improvement (receive 2 Food, the Pottery (Major Imp.) now costs you nothing) & this is where I think I was beginning to have a bad day; somehow, I missed the words 'costs you nothing' & so didn't pick up the Pottery until near the end of the game - D'OH! That would have been a big, big help had I taken it earlier. To make things worse, on the penultimate turn, I forgot all about Food & did other actions... then realised I didnit have any Food for my two Family members. Nada, zilch, zero! So I had to give up FOUR Grain to feed them & then on the last turn, I took lots of Clay which gave me 2 Food & 3 Bonus points with the Pottery. I still had to take TWO begging cards!!! I felt like throwing my toys out of the pram as a result of my own stupidity...!!!
By game end, both Nick & Keith had got a larger Stone Hut with 4 or 5 Family members each & approximately the same number of unused spaces. Though I thought it was most likely Keith had won since he had something of everything & Nick had no Fields, Grain or Vegetables...
Final scoring;
(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegetables/ Sheep/Boar/Cattle/Unused Spaces/Fenced Stables/Clay Hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family members/Points for cards/Bonus points)
1st - Keith: (2/4/1/1/2/2/1/-3/2/0/6/15/1/0) = 34pts.
2nd - Nick: (-1/4/-1/-1/2/1/1/-4/2/0/8/12/8/2) = 31pts.
3rd - Ester: (2/4/1/-1/1/4/1/-2/1/2/0/6/2/0) = 21pts.
4th - Matt: (3/2/-1/-1/2/3/-1/-4/2/3/0/6/4/-3) = 15pts.
5th - Julian: (-1/4/-1/-1/3/-1/3/-5/2/0/0/6/1/0) = 10pts.
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Thurs 19th Feb - Chicago Express
Last week saw a new game of mine hit the table, one which I had been extremely keen to try; Chicago Express (Queen Games).
This is a train game of sorts, but has more to do with investing in the four companies at the right time to gain money than laying down routes. This was one of the most eagerly-awaited games released in Essen 2008 & a revamped/better-looking edition of Wabash Cannonball from 2007 (Winsome Games).
The basic premise involves trying to extend your companies’ routes into Chicago via cities & profitable areas as quickly as possible for income. In each round, there is a limit to the three different actions that players can take; Auction (bidding for a share in one of the four companies that the active player chooses), Extend (where you lay down up to three trains of one company – usually one that benefits you) & Develop (where you increase income for companies in a given city/mountain/forest). Despite the simple & few possible actions, there are a lot of complex dynamics involved in strategising which is the best option for you & who you invest in because, very possibly, whatever you do is going to have some immediate benefit also for your opponents! Once Chicago is entered, which means a lot more income for the companies lucky enough, the Wabash company also enters play.
There is a lot of assessing the situation as the game develops to determining what to take advantage of. Great fun, but I haven’t worked out what the best strategy is! I won the first game by miles ($136) then lost the second game by miles ($44). Definitely one I want to try again very soon!
This is a train game of sorts, but has more to do with investing in the four companies at the right time to gain money than laying down routes. This was one of the most eagerly-awaited games released in Essen 2008 & a revamped/better-looking edition of Wabash Cannonball from 2007 (Winsome Games).
The basic premise involves trying to extend your companies’ routes into Chicago via cities & profitable areas as quickly as possible for income. In each round, there is a limit to the three different actions that players can take; Auction (bidding for a share in one of the four companies that the active player chooses), Extend (where you lay down up to three trains of one company – usually one that benefits you) & Develop (where you increase income for companies in a given city/mountain/forest). Despite the simple & few possible actions, there are a lot of complex dynamics involved in strategising which is the best option for you & who you invest in because, very possibly, whatever you do is going to have some immediate benefit also for your opponents! Once Chicago is entered, which means a lot more income for the companies lucky enough, the Wabash company also enters play.
There is a lot of assessing the situation as the game develops to determining what to take advantage of. Great fun, but I haven’t worked out what the best strategy is! I won the first game by miles ($136) then lost the second game by miles ($44). Definitely one I want to try again very soon!
Various gaming in February
Well, I haven't been blogging on this as much as I was previously. That's partly due to being a bit busy and/or lazy at times, but I've also had quite a lot of repeat plays of the same games lately so it felt somewhat redundant to write about the same ones again & again... so I'll just stick with a brief re-cap.
A couple of weeks ago - me, Keith, Julian, Ester & Nasty Nick all sat down for Agricola at the Legion. Nick was the only new person to this although J&E had only had one game of it previously. Keith is proving to be the master of all things farming lately, so I was looking forward to locking horns with him once again. Unfortunately, he ran away with the game on 39pts - followed by me on 23pts, Nick on 22pts, Ester on 12pts or so & Julian doing remarkably bad with... -5pts! Keith had a very well-rounded farm; plenty of stone hut rooms, family members, animals, pastures, etc whereas I always felt I was struggling for food & so my precious actions were taken up gathering food tokens more often than I'd've liked. Nick was narrowly behind me & Julian's farm was, in a funny way, appalling! Lots of unused spaces, one sheep & no grain/veg... he also had picked up a total of SEVEN begging cards! But he had played the Medicant occupation which allows to you get rid of two begging cards before scoring. I think his downfall was he had a lot of cards that would work well together & spent too much time laying a lot of them down. By then, it was too late to get his farm up & running as it should have been.
I've also been to Julian & Ester's place a couple of times, where we've had repeat plays - namely Pillars Of The Earth, Stone Age (the last time was with the mini Huts expansion tiles added), Zooloretto, For Sale, Modern Art & a couple of other new games to either me or them. Some good sessions going on!
A couple of weeks ago - me, Keith, Julian, Ester & Nasty Nick all sat down for Agricola at the Legion. Nick was the only new person to this although J&E had only had one game of it previously. Keith is proving to be the master of all things farming lately, so I was looking forward to locking horns with him once again. Unfortunately, he ran away with the game on 39pts - followed by me on 23pts, Nick on 22pts, Ester on 12pts or so & Julian doing remarkably bad with... -5pts! Keith had a very well-rounded farm; plenty of stone hut rooms, family members, animals, pastures, etc whereas I always felt I was struggling for food & so my precious actions were taken up gathering food tokens more often than I'd've liked. Nick was narrowly behind me & Julian's farm was, in a funny way, appalling! Lots of unused spaces, one sheep & no grain/veg... he also had picked up a total of SEVEN begging cards! But he had played the Medicant occupation which allows to you get rid of two begging cards before scoring. I think his downfall was he had a lot of cards that would work well together & spent too much time laying a lot of them down. By then, it was too late to get his farm up & running as it should have been.
I've also been to Julian & Ester's place a couple of times, where we've had repeat plays - namely Pillars Of The Earth, Stone Age (the last time was with the mini Huts expansion tiles added), Zooloretto, For Sale, Modern Art & a couple of other new games to either me or them. Some good sessions going on!
Sunday 8 February 2009
7th Feb - Gaming at Julian's & Ester's
I met Julian & Ester at their place in the evening for some more gaming; having already played the previous two nights, we clearly hadn't had quite enough of games!
Knowing they both liked (especially Ester) Stone Age & the resource-management games such as Agricola, even if the latter is fairly complex due to the number of options, I thought Pillars Of The Earth would hit the right buttons with them. So we kicked off with that... after a little explaining of the rules, they understood the aim & flow of the game after the 1st year, which showed as they played really well.
1st - Matt, 47pts
2nd - Ester, 43 pts & 8 Gold
3rd - Julian 43ps & no Gold.
Next up, we played Modern Art which I had not got round to playing since I bought it, so was looking forward to it. The different types of auctions in the game gave all of us a bit of pause for thought as there were certainly times for me where I found it difficult to read the situation & potential bids of Julian & Ester, especially the sealed bids. I had a disasterous first round in which I pulled in a miserable amount of money for my paintings compared to J & E. From the 2nd auction round onwards, I paid more attention to trying to get a good ranking for the artists I already had in my hand that had a good amount of prior value in previous rounds. This paid dividends as I was able to catch up by game end:-
1st - Ester, $500k approx.
2nd - Matt, $391k.
3rd - Julian, he gave up counting but had less than me! Approximately $350k.
Both me & Julian got a good laugh at Ester's bidding antics; she was spending money & more money like there was no tomorrow... typical of any woman. The biggest overstatement was when I said to Julian he couldn't lose with Ester bidding like she was; turns out she won convincingly. Not bad for someone who said she 'didn't give a f*** about what she was paying out' (not that she didn't enjoy the game)!
3rd game, we played Dominion using the First Game set-up; I was keen to see how they would like it. A very unfamilar type of game for them, but they soon got the hang of it. I deliberately started buying cards to draw in the money for Provinces; Villages & Smithys to get extra cards & action, then onto the Markets & Militia, as well as a good sprinkling of Silvers & Golds. Once I started to put some of the combos together, J & E's faces were a picture! It took a while to finish given they were learning the cards, etc... so I picked up most of the Provinces, but they did manage to get some as well & Duchys... Ester ended the game by picking up the last Province, which was a bit of a blow to Julian as he had the money to get it next!
Final score:-
1st - Matt, 50pts
2nd - Ester, 34pts
3rd - Julian, 33pts
We decided on Zooloretto for our last game, where they demonstrated their liking for this light & quick game...
1st - Ester, 31pts
2nd - Julian, 27pts
3rd - Matt, 23pts
Another great session, which left me really knackered once I got home at 1am in the morning!
Knowing they both liked (especially Ester) Stone Age & the resource-management games such as Agricola, even if the latter is fairly complex due to the number of options, I thought Pillars Of The Earth would hit the right buttons with them. So we kicked off with that... after a little explaining of the rules, they understood the aim & flow of the game after the 1st year, which showed as they played really well.
1st - Matt, 47pts
2nd - Ester, 43 pts & 8 Gold
3rd - Julian 43ps & no Gold.
Next up, we played Modern Art which I had not got round to playing since I bought it, so was looking forward to it. The different types of auctions in the game gave all of us a bit of pause for thought as there were certainly times for me where I found it difficult to read the situation & potential bids of Julian & Ester, especially the sealed bids. I had a disasterous first round in which I pulled in a miserable amount of money for my paintings compared to J & E. From the 2nd auction round onwards, I paid more attention to trying to get a good ranking for the artists I already had in my hand that had a good amount of prior value in previous rounds. This paid dividends as I was able to catch up by game end:-
1st - Ester, $500k approx.
2nd - Matt, $391k.
3rd - Julian, he gave up counting but had less than me! Approximately $350k.
Both me & Julian got a good laugh at Ester's bidding antics; she was spending money & more money like there was no tomorrow... typical of any woman. The biggest overstatement was when I said to Julian he couldn't lose with Ester bidding like she was; turns out she won convincingly. Not bad for someone who said she 'didn't give a f*** about what she was paying out' (not that she didn't enjoy the game)!
3rd game, we played Dominion using the First Game set-up; I was keen to see how they would like it. A very unfamilar type of game for them, but they soon got the hang of it. I deliberately started buying cards to draw in the money for Provinces; Villages & Smithys to get extra cards & action, then onto the Markets & Militia, as well as a good sprinkling of Silvers & Golds. Once I started to put some of the combos together, J & E's faces were a picture! It took a while to finish given they were learning the cards, etc... so I picked up most of the Provinces, but they did manage to get some as well & Duchys... Ester ended the game by picking up the last Province, which was a bit of a blow to Julian as he had the money to get it next!
Final score:-
1st - Matt, 50pts
2nd - Ester, 34pts
3rd - Julian, 33pts
We decided on Zooloretto for our last game, where they demonstrated their liking for this light & quick game...
1st - Ester, 31pts
2nd - Julian, 27pts
3rd - Matt, 23pts
Another great session, which left me really knackered once I got home at 1am in the morning!
Fri 6th Feb - Agricola & Domaine at Keith's
Having already arranged to meet at Keith's with Julian & Ester at Keith's place earlier in the week, there was some uncertainity about whether we would because of the overnight snow that had stopped many people from going to work. Thankfully, it seemed to stop & thaw a bit so we went ahead for the session...
We kicked off with a 4-player game of Agricola as me & Keith wanted another game, while Julian & Ester had heard about it being the current #1 on BoardGameGeek so they wanted to give it a go. With a rules explanation for them, we were off & running using the E-Deck of Occupations & Minor Improvements.
This felt like an awkward game for me; I never felt like I was being as efficient as I could be with my worker placements for the action spaces. My end strategy became clear to me as I looked through my occupations; I had the Wooden Hut Builder which gives you one bonus points per room in my Wooden Hut. I normally aim for a Clay Hut at least, if not a Stone Hut, for the points at game end but decided to play this Occupation by game end. Very quickly, I laid down an Occupation card & a Minor Imp card that would help me out with my initial food supply; Basketmaker (convert 1 Reed into 3 Food in each Harvest) & the Minor Imp allowed me to convert Grain into 2 Food at any time with needing to Bake Bread. As a result, I started by taking Reed when I could & sowing Grain. Keith played the Potter occupation to convert 1 Clay into 2 Food in each Harvest at some point - sounds tasty(!) Ester also had one Occupation; Seasonal Worker (take a Grain or Vegetable when using the Day Labourer action space, depending on which Round it is), which Julian didn't play any Occupation if I remember right.
As seems to be his favourite strategy, Keith quickly built a 3rd room & took the Family Growth actio space in Round 5 when it came up for a 3rd family member. I did the same two Rounds later before the Harvest. Again, Julian picked up at one stage that my farm didn't look very accomplished, before adding: ' you're going to do it again, aren't you?' - he is very perceptive with my playing style!
A quick summary of each of our farms:-
Keith - 4 Stone Hut rooms & 5 family members, with a good number of everything; fields, pastures, animals, stables, grain & vegs. Only two unused spaces.
Matt - 5 Wooden Hut rooms (for the bonus points) & 5 family members; very similar to Keith's in terms of having something of everything, perhaps a bit less. 3 unused spaces.
Julian - 2 Clay Hut rooms & only 2 family members. A decent number of fields & pastures, but was let down by having no boar or cattle. 3 unused spaces.
Ester - 3 (I think) Wooden Hut rooms & 3 family members. Plenty of pastures with animals of each category, but she was let down by having no fields & SEVEN unused spaces! I think I knew who was in last place...
Final scoring
(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegs/Sheep/Boar/Cattle/Unused Spaces/Fenced Stables/Clay Hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family Members/Points for cards/bonus points) :-
1st - Keith (2/3/1/2/2/2/2/-2/1/0/8/15/1/0) = 37pts.
2nd - Matt (3/2/1/1/2/2/1/-3/1/0/0/15/3/5) = 33pts.
3rd - Julian (2/3/1/1/1/-1/-1/-3/0/2/0/6/1/0) = 12pts.
4th - Ester (-1/3/-1/1/1/2/1/-7/0/0/0/9/1/0) = 9pts.
Great fun had by all, but the most important things was that Julian & Ester really liked it despite the array of options available. Now that they have a better idea of what they're trying to do, next time should be closer.
~~~~~~
We decided to play one more game & Keith suggested Domaine. He was the only one who had played & I also have this in my collection so I was keen to give it a try. After a rules explanation, we were off.
At first, I was a bit unsure about the best approach & strategy to go for, but it soon became clear that starting a territory quickly is key to score a few points & get some income from mines. I was soon getting 3 coins from owning three different mine types & had managed to control 3 towns for 6VPs so was in the lead at one stage. Keith attacked & took these two villages, but I went back at him & regained them. Julian controlled three of the same type of mines to get bonus points(? or something else).
Late game, it became clear that with territories expanding we were starting to help one another out by enclosing some of their castles & giving them VPs. The crucial point came when it appeared that Ester had perhaps unwisely put a village & a forest on my side of a border; the potential territory that I could take as a result would give me 9pts, enough to win the game automatically. Poor Keith looked for a way to prevent this, but conceded & it was down to whether or not I had the right card to finish the territory... I did!
Final score:-
1st - Matt, 31pts.
2nd - Keith, 24pts/25pts?
3rd - Julian, 20pts?
4th - Ester, about 8pts.
We kicked off with a 4-player game of Agricola as me & Keith wanted another game, while Julian & Ester had heard about it being the current #1 on BoardGameGeek so they wanted to give it a go. With a rules explanation for them, we were off & running using the E-Deck of Occupations & Minor Improvements.
This felt like an awkward game for me; I never felt like I was being as efficient as I could be with my worker placements for the action spaces. My end strategy became clear to me as I looked through my occupations; I had the Wooden Hut Builder which gives you one bonus points per room in my Wooden Hut. I normally aim for a Clay Hut at least, if not a Stone Hut, for the points at game end but decided to play this Occupation by game end. Very quickly, I laid down an Occupation card & a Minor Imp card that would help me out with my initial food supply; Basketmaker (convert 1 Reed into 3 Food in each Harvest) & the Minor Imp allowed me to convert Grain into 2 Food at any time with needing to Bake Bread. As a result, I started by taking Reed when I could & sowing Grain. Keith played the Potter occupation to convert 1 Clay into 2 Food in each Harvest at some point - sounds tasty(!) Ester also had one Occupation; Seasonal Worker (take a Grain or Vegetable when using the Day Labourer action space, depending on which Round it is), which Julian didn't play any Occupation if I remember right.
As seems to be his favourite strategy, Keith quickly built a 3rd room & took the Family Growth actio space in Round 5 when it came up for a 3rd family member. I did the same two Rounds later before the Harvest. Again, Julian picked up at one stage that my farm didn't look very accomplished, before adding: ' you're going to do it again, aren't you?' - he is very perceptive with my playing style!
A quick summary of each of our farms:-
Keith - 4 Stone Hut rooms & 5 family members, with a good number of everything; fields, pastures, animals, stables, grain & vegs. Only two unused spaces.
Matt - 5 Wooden Hut rooms (for the bonus points) & 5 family members; very similar to Keith's in terms of having something of everything, perhaps a bit less. 3 unused spaces.
Julian - 2 Clay Hut rooms & only 2 family members. A decent number of fields & pastures, but was let down by having no boar or cattle. 3 unused spaces.
Ester - 3 (I think) Wooden Hut rooms & 3 family members. Plenty of pastures with animals of each category, but she was let down by having no fields & SEVEN unused spaces! I think I knew who was in last place...
Final scoring
(Fields/Pastures/Grain/Vegs/Sheep/Boar/Cattle/Unused Spaces/Fenced Stables/Clay Hut rooms/Stone Hut rooms/Family Members/Points for cards/bonus points) :-
1st - Keith (2/3/1/2/2/2/2/-2/1/0/8/15/1/0) = 37pts.
2nd - Matt (3/2/1/1/2/2/1/-3/1/0/0/15/3/5) = 33pts.
3rd - Julian (2/3/1/1/1/-1/-1/-3/0/2/0/6/1/0) = 12pts.
4th - Ester (-1/3/-1/1/1/2/1/-7/0/0/0/9/1/0) = 9pts.
Great fun had by all, but the most important things was that Julian & Ester really liked it despite the array of options available. Now that they have a better idea of what they're trying to do, next time should be closer.
~~~~~~
We decided to play one more game & Keith suggested Domaine. He was the only one who had played & I also have this in my collection so I was keen to give it a try. After a rules explanation, we were off.
At first, I was a bit unsure about the best approach & strategy to go for, but it soon became clear that starting a territory quickly is key to score a few points & get some income from mines. I was soon getting 3 coins from owning three different mine types & had managed to control 3 towns for 6VPs so was in the lead at one stage. Keith attacked & took these two villages, but I went back at him & regained them. Julian controlled three of the same type of mines to get bonus points(? or something else).
Late game, it became clear that with territories expanding we were starting to help one another out by enclosing some of their castles & giving them VPs. The crucial point came when it appeared that Ester had perhaps unwisely put a village & a forest on my side of a border; the potential territory that I could take as a result would give me 9pts, enough to win the game automatically. Poor Keith looked for a way to prevent this, but conceded & it was down to whether or not I had the right card to finish the territory... I did!
Final score:-
1st - Matt, 31pts.
2nd - Keith, 24pts/25pts?
3rd - Julian, 20pts?
4th - Ester, about 8pts.
Thurs 5th Feb - Krawkow 1325AD & In The Year Of The Dragon
A low turn-out at the Legion at this session, mainly due to the snow problems this week; 6 (Simon, Peter C, Ian, Richard & 2 others) had pre-arranged to play Battlestar Galactica while the other 4 of us (me, Nasty Nick, Julian & Ester) tried out Krakow 1325AD. Me, Julian & Ester had wanted to try this 4-player only game from Essen 2008, so Nick got roped into taking the last space.
Initial impressions: an odd game of teamwork & secret identities; you had two teams of two competing against each other for area control in different areas of Krakow 1325AD by using hands of intrigue cards relating four different factions vying for power in Krakow. The twist is that each player is also dealt a secret identity at the start of the game to determine which group they are. Each player/group has an enemy in one of the other three, which can either be one of your opponents or your own teammate! The game take over an agreed number of years (1-3) split into 4 seasons, in which 7 rounds are played out of 9 in your hand.
When an intrigue card is started, the strength of it is determined by a value, it also shows which areas to add influence tokens in if successful. It also has a colour on it relating to which faction it will help out (in terms of points) if successful. The first opponent plays one of his/her cards to Oppose the intrigue with one of their cards using the negative Support values. The teammate then plays a card to Support the intrigue using the positive Support values, followed by the final opponent in the same manner for Opposing. If the end result is positive, the intrigue is successful & goes to the successful intrigue pile & the influence tokens are placed as directed on the card - also if the intrigue was a Special, this give a bonus benefit to the team that played it (such as replacing or removing certain enemy influence). If the result is negative, the intrigue is discarded & the opponents get to start an intrigue. If the result is Zero, the person with seasonal advantage get the tie-break. There are also cards that Block very high-valued intrigues for an automatic victory...
So there are quite a lot of difficult decisions to consider; you teammate might start an intrigue which would give a lot of influence for the team, but also happens to be for you secret enemy - do you support his intrigue for the influence tokens or deliberately play a weak Support value to get rid of the intrigue & hand the advantage with the opponents? Do you start intrigues in your group's colour at the risk of giving everyone else an idea of which group you are?
Anyway, with that brief description over... this was a difficult game to explain due to the unfamilarity with this type of game & it caused some confusion, so I wasn't sure it would go over well. We played two years; the first year me & Nick were doing hideously bad! Julian & Ester had lots of influence tokens on the board, whereas we had practically none. This gave them a lot of team victory points by the end of the years & there was quite a wide range in group victory points once we scored the successful intrigues - I was worse off than anyone else & knew I was definitely last! I think me & Nick were very frustrated at our lack of success, but we pushed on for another year & it was definitely better with a better understanding of the game from the 1st year. We had a good start with our influence going on the board more, Nick started a lot of red intrigues, which happened to be my enemy, & I began to suspect we were really working against each other :-( ! By the end of the 2nd year, we had caught up a few team VPs but it was clear that either Julian or Ester had won...
1st - Julian (blue - Mystic Monks) VPs in the 50's
2nd - Ester (blue - ???) VPs in the 40's
3rd - Nick (red - The Underword) VPs in the 30's
4th - Matt (green - Good Citizens) 21 VPs
We then moved onto In The Year Of The Dragon; alea's most recent big-box release. Me & Nick were fairly experienced at it, so explained it to the newcomers. After that we selected our initial workers; I was last on the person track so would be going last - and I didn't bother to get myself ahead on this, so went last for the whole game.
I quickly built some more palace floors as this seems to be the best strategy to hold more workers in & plan ahead better. I cannot remember the exactly sequence of things, but after the first few events in which no-one really suffered any drastic consequences, I was last in VPs, followed by Ester, then Nick & Julian were fairly close together - Nick had the prestige scroll thing which cost 6 coins from the the start of the game that would give him 2VPs each turn; a very typcial strategy I've seen him use to good effect previously. Ester later got one of these, then Julian, so I had to contend myself with a 1VP scroll. I did pick up a dragon lady at least as early as halfway through for an extra VP. I was still propping up the rear in VPs, which Julian pointed out at some point & I just looked at him - he must have seen something in my eyes as he exclaimed that I knew what I was doing & that I was going to pull ahead before the end of the game; I could only grin at this!!!
The only big issue I had was the second famine event which I got blocked out from getting rice in the action phase by Nasty Nick (with a hint of a smile on his face as he did so) so I had to lose three workers in total as I had three palaces. This wasn't too disasterous as I was able to lose workers I didn't need any more for upcoming events, but this would cost me a few points. I think Julian & Ester began to slip behind as they didn't build as much as me & Nick so had to get rid of their people more often, which probably hinder their ability to deal with events.
Final scoring:-
1st - Nasty Nick, 106pts approx.
2nd - Matt, 98pts approx.
3rd - Ester (I think), 88pts approx.
4th Julian (I think), VPs in the 70's.
A good session had by all of us, I think... despite the initial confusion in starting Krakow 1325AD.
Initial impressions: an odd game of teamwork & secret identities; you had two teams of two competing against each other for area control in different areas of Krakow 1325AD by using hands of intrigue cards relating four different factions vying for power in Krakow. The twist is that each player is also dealt a secret identity at the start of the game to determine which group they are. Each player/group has an enemy in one of the other three, which can either be one of your opponents or your own teammate! The game take over an agreed number of years (1-3) split into 4 seasons, in which 7 rounds are played out of 9 in your hand.
When an intrigue card is started, the strength of it is determined by a value, it also shows which areas to add influence tokens in if successful. It also has a colour on it relating to which faction it will help out (in terms of points) if successful. The first opponent plays one of his/her cards to Oppose the intrigue with one of their cards using the negative Support values. The teammate then plays a card to Support the intrigue using the positive Support values, followed by the final opponent in the same manner for Opposing. If the end result is positive, the intrigue is successful & goes to the successful intrigue pile & the influence tokens are placed as directed on the card - also if the intrigue was a Special, this give a bonus benefit to the team that played it (such as replacing or removing certain enemy influence). If the result is negative, the intrigue is discarded & the opponents get to start an intrigue. If the result is Zero, the person with seasonal advantage get the tie-break. There are also cards that Block very high-valued intrigues for an automatic victory...
So there are quite a lot of difficult decisions to consider; you teammate might start an intrigue which would give a lot of influence for the team, but also happens to be for you secret enemy - do you support his intrigue for the influence tokens or deliberately play a weak Support value to get rid of the intrigue & hand the advantage with the opponents? Do you start intrigues in your group's colour at the risk of giving everyone else an idea of which group you are?
Anyway, with that brief description over... this was a difficult game to explain due to the unfamilarity with this type of game & it caused some confusion, so I wasn't sure it would go over well. We played two years; the first year me & Nick were doing hideously bad! Julian & Ester had lots of influence tokens on the board, whereas we had practically none. This gave them a lot of team victory points by the end of the years & there was quite a wide range in group victory points once we scored the successful intrigues - I was worse off than anyone else & knew I was definitely last! I think me & Nick were very frustrated at our lack of success, but we pushed on for another year & it was definitely better with a better understanding of the game from the 1st year. We had a good start with our influence going on the board more, Nick started a lot of red intrigues, which happened to be my enemy, & I began to suspect we were really working against each other :-( ! By the end of the 2nd year, we had caught up a few team VPs but it was clear that either Julian or Ester had won...
1st - Julian (blue - Mystic Monks) VPs in the 50's
2nd - Ester (blue - ???) VPs in the 40's
3rd - Nick (red - The Underword) VPs in the 30's
4th - Matt (green - Good Citizens) 21 VPs
We then moved onto In The Year Of The Dragon; alea's most recent big-box release. Me & Nick were fairly experienced at it, so explained it to the newcomers. After that we selected our initial workers; I was last on the person track so would be going last - and I didn't bother to get myself ahead on this, so went last for the whole game.
I quickly built some more palace floors as this seems to be the best strategy to hold more workers in & plan ahead better. I cannot remember the exactly sequence of things, but after the first few events in which no-one really suffered any drastic consequences, I was last in VPs, followed by Ester, then Nick & Julian were fairly close together - Nick had the prestige scroll thing which cost 6 coins from the the start of the game that would give him 2VPs each turn; a very typcial strategy I've seen him use to good effect previously. Ester later got one of these, then Julian, so I had to contend myself with a 1VP scroll. I did pick up a dragon lady at least as early as halfway through for an extra VP. I was still propping up the rear in VPs, which Julian pointed out at some point & I just looked at him - he must have seen something in my eyes as he exclaimed that I knew what I was doing & that I was going to pull ahead before the end of the game; I could only grin at this!!!
The only big issue I had was the second famine event which I got blocked out from getting rice in the action phase by Nasty Nick (with a hint of a smile on his face as he did so) so I had to lose three workers in total as I had three palaces. This wasn't too disasterous as I was able to lose workers I didn't need any more for upcoming events, but this would cost me a few points. I think Julian & Ester began to slip behind as they didn't build as much as me & Nick so had to get rid of their people more often, which probably hinder their ability to deal with events.
Final scoring:-
1st - Nasty Nick, 106pts approx.
2nd - Matt, 98pts approx.
3rd - Ester (I think), 88pts approx.
4th Julian (I think), VPs in the 70's.
A good session had by all of us, I think... despite the initial confusion in starting Krakow 1325AD.
Friday 30 January 2009
The Week That Was...
Two gaming sessions this week to report on:-
1 - I met with Julian & Ester on Monday evening as they were keen to get some more gaming in; possibly they are really liking the new hobby?! I first introduce them to Zooloretto & after explaining the rules & basic concepts/tips, we were away. I felt like I started well & didn't have any animals in my barn for a long time, while the other two quickly had a couple of types. They quickly caught on to check what everyone else was collecting so they could try to place a tile in a truck which wasn't benefictial (or as little as possible) to anyone else. I was the first to expand my zoo & thought I was on my way to a win, but after a bit of crafty swopping animal types around, Ester seemed like she was catching up. A bit of buying here & there, I started feeling less sure especially after I had to take a couple of trucks that put a total of 3 animal types in my barn - bad news!
Final score - joint 1st was Julian & Ester on 27pts, me in last with 22pts. Oh, the shame!
We then moved onto Stone Age. We all had a good game the previous week at the Legion with Michel (who doesn't share the same views) & the newbies wanted another go. Julian especially learnt the importance of the scoring cards. This was a game of more bad dice rolls than the previous game & there were quite a lot of cards bought... Julian went up to NINE workers & built a lot of builings (7?) to my 5.
Final scoring - 1st was Julian on 137pts, 2nd was me on 115pts & Ester was on @100pts.
Last game of the evening was Fearsome Floors which I thought would appeal to Julian's back-stabbing nature. I am beginning to think he & Damen were separated at birth! After an explanation of the movement rules & showing examples of how the monster moves through walls, as well as how this can be manipulated to screw around with your opponents, we were off. I was the first to get a person out, then Julian & quickly followed by Ester. By the 2nd phase, Julian had got his 2nd person out ahead of me (so was currently 1st on tie-break of getting out quicker) & we only needed one more to win the game. After a bit of Julian trying to shaft me, which I countered by sacrificing my penultimate person to shaft him back, he had no-one left to move & I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself as I still had one more fairly near the exit & only Ester to worry about. The only way I could lose was if the '1 Kill' or '2 Kills' tile came up (as the monster moves 20 spaces)... unfortunately, it did & the monster soon had me in its sight, gobbling me up & at the same time, giving Julian victory from the hands of defeat!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 - at the Legion last night, I had hoped to try out Chicago Express but we (me, Ben, Nasty Nick, Steve & Nick Bleech) decided to settle for Princes Of Florence. I was more than happy as I'd never player a multi-player game of PoF which is meant to be difficult & tense. I chose Works that seemed to rely on large buildings & quickly found myself bidding hard for Builders so that I could put the three large buildings (Lab, University & ?) close together. I also had Works that relied heavily on Religion, Lakes & Forests, so was feeling quite chuffed about that. My final Works Value was 24(!) & converted it all to points. But it wasn't enough to beat Steve (the winner) or Ben (2nd), who both had Prestige cards that gave them extra points. I did end up one point ahead of Nasty Nick, which was enough for me!
Nick B left, so the 4 of us played Yspahan quickly. We saw a huge amount of cards being taken & played, one of which I used to build the +2pts building. This may have been the crucial point that won me the game as I score a gigantic 29pts in the 2nd week for having 4 complete souks, which gave me a bonus 8pts. Towards the end of the final week I was miles ahead, but Steve caught up & ended 4pts behind.
The fact that I beat Nasty Nick TWICE (shock!) was the icing on the cake as he had been stirring things up all evening! But I still love him (oo-er, missus!)...
1 - I met with Julian & Ester on Monday evening as they were keen to get some more gaming in; possibly they are really liking the new hobby?! I first introduce them to Zooloretto & after explaining the rules & basic concepts/tips, we were away. I felt like I started well & didn't have any animals in my barn for a long time, while the other two quickly had a couple of types. They quickly caught on to check what everyone else was collecting so they could try to place a tile in a truck which wasn't benefictial (or as little as possible) to anyone else. I was the first to expand my zoo & thought I was on my way to a win, but after a bit of crafty swopping animal types around, Ester seemed like she was catching up. A bit of buying here & there, I started feeling less sure especially after I had to take a couple of trucks that put a total of 3 animal types in my barn - bad news!
Final score - joint 1st was Julian & Ester on 27pts, me in last with 22pts. Oh, the shame!
We then moved onto Stone Age. We all had a good game the previous week at the Legion with Michel (who doesn't share the same views) & the newbies wanted another go. Julian especially learnt the importance of the scoring cards. This was a game of more bad dice rolls than the previous game & there were quite a lot of cards bought... Julian went up to NINE workers & built a lot of builings (7?) to my 5.
Final scoring - 1st was Julian on 137pts, 2nd was me on 115pts & Ester was on @100pts.
Last game of the evening was Fearsome Floors which I thought would appeal to Julian's back-stabbing nature. I am beginning to think he & Damen were separated at birth! After an explanation of the movement rules & showing examples of how the monster moves through walls, as well as how this can be manipulated to screw around with your opponents, we were off. I was the first to get a person out, then Julian & quickly followed by Ester. By the 2nd phase, Julian had got his 2nd person out ahead of me (so was currently 1st on tie-break of getting out quicker) & we only needed one more to win the game. After a bit of Julian trying to shaft me, which I countered by sacrificing my penultimate person to shaft him back, he had no-one left to move & I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself as I still had one more fairly near the exit & only Ester to worry about. The only way I could lose was if the '1 Kill' or '2 Kills' tile came up (as the monster moves 20 spaces)... unfortunately, it did & the monster soon had me in its sight, gobbling me up & at the same time, giving Julian victory from the hands of defeat!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 - at the Legion last night, I had hoped to try out Chicago Express but we (me, Ben, Nasty Nick, Steve & Nick Bleech) decided to settle for Princes Of Florence. I was more than happy as I'd never player a multi-player game of PoF which is meant to be difficult & tense. I chose Works that seemed to rely on large buildings & quickly found myself bidding hard for Builders so that I could put the three large buildings (Lab, University & ?) close together. I also had Works that relied heavily on Religion, Lakes & Forests, so was feeling quite chuffed about that. My final Works Value was 24(!) & converted it all to points. But it wasn't enough to beat Steve (the winner) or Ben (2nd), who both had Prestige cards that gave them extra points. I did end up one point ahead of Nasty Nick, which was enough for me!
Nick B left, so the 4 of us played Yspahan quickly. We saw a huge amount of cards being taken & played, one of which I used to build the +2pts building. This may have been the crucial point that won me the game as I score a gigantic 29pts in the 2nd week for having 4 complete souks, which gave me a bonus 8pts. Towards the end of the final week I was miles ahead, but Steve caught up & ended 4pts behind.
The fact that I beat Nasty Nick TWICE (shock!) was the icing on the cake as he had been stirring things up all evening! But I still love him (oo-er, missus!)...
Saturday 17 January 2009
15th Jan - Puerto Rico
With the new gamers (Julian & Ester) in mind, I arranged a game of Puerto Rico with them, Michel & Nick. Me & Nick have played Puerto Rico a fair number of times & we seem to favour a strategy of going for the Hospice (+1 colonist for settling) as our first building. I wanted to do something different as it can be a tedious to stick with the same strategy every single time for me.
I was the lucky player to choose the first role & chose Builder, taking a Large Indigo Plant. Unsurprisingly, Nick went for the Hospice. I only remember Ester going for the Small Market (+1 doubloon when selling).
I hadn't played for a few months & as the game progressed, I was beginning to feel I was lagging behind most of the others once we all began to produce a variety of resources to ship for VPs; due to only producing 1 Indigo & 1 Sugar in the early game, I wasn't gettin many VPs while Michel & Nick seemed to shipping more than the rest of us. I decided to try & get the Wharf (+1 VP per shipment) followed by one of the large 4VPs buildings, so this strategy began with an early purchase of the Construction Hut (may take a Quarry instead of a plantation in the Settler phase) & this reaped rewards as I has 3 manned Quarries & used it in conjunction with the Large Market (+2 doubloons when selling) as well as taking the Prospector role if there were extra coins on it, to sell Tobacco for a large sum. This enabled me to have the money to buy the Wharf, which I didn't use as much as I wanted seeing as the ships got very full up and/or were stocking up with resources I didn't produce (coffee & corn). I quickly got up to 10 coins again & agonised over whether to go for a Harbour (your own ship) which would have been excellent seeing as I had the Wharf, but I noticed Nick was amassing lots of colonists & would probably look to buy the Residence (4VPs, +1 VP per 3 colonists) in the game as it would give him a siginificant number of bonus VPs. I decided to stir things up a bit by buying the Residence to Nick's dismay, but in part, I took this for myself because I was estimating this would also happen to be the 4VP building that would given me the most bonus points by the end of the game.
Ester was also rolling in the money with selling coffee & using her Small Market, which she used to buy the Guild Hall(?) (bonus points for production buildings). Michel was struggling for cash, although he seemed to be producing & shipping a lot. Julian was also producing a fair amount & had the Factory to gain extra doubloons with production. I think Nick ended up going for the 4VP building that gives bonus points for violet buildings, he wasn't exactly rolling in the money but he had two manned Quarries which helped him out enough. Both Michel & Julian had the Hacienda which also you to draw a bonus plantation in the Settler phase & it didn't seem like their draws were doing them any favours; I am personally not a fan of the Hacienda myself.
The game ended as a result of running out of colonists. Results:-
1st - Matt, 33pts & 7 doubloons.
2nd - Nick, 33pts & 6 doubloons! (3 doubloons, 3 corn)
3rd - Ester, 31pts.
4th & 5th - Michel & Julian (can't remember who won the tie-break).
Very close game, though unusually low-scoring as me, Nick & David pointed out.
I also had the pleasure of sitting next to Huggy, who was playing A Game Of Thrones. I took great delight in scattering his carefully arranged wooden pieces at his side twice & making sure he was not cheating!
I was the lucky player to choose the first role & chose Builder, taking a Large Indigo Plant. Unsurprisingly, Nick went for the Hospice. I only remember Ester going for the Small Market (+1 doubloon when selling).
I hadn't played for a few months & as the game progressed, I was beginning to feel I was lagging behind most of the others once we all began to produce a variety of resources to ship for VPs; due to only producing 1 Indigo & 1 Sugar in the early game, I wasn't gettin many VPs while Michel & Nick seemed to shipping more than the rest of us. I decided to try & get the Wharf (+1 VP per shipment) followed by one of the large 4VPs buildings, so this strategy began with an early purchase of the Construction Hut (may take a Quarry instead of a plantation in the Settler phase) & this reaped rewards as I has 3 manned Quarries & used it in conjunction with the Large Market (+2 doubloons when selling) as well as taking the Prospector role if there were extra coins on it, to sell Tobacco for a large sum. This enabled me to have the money to buy the Wharf, which I didn't use as much as I wanted seeing as the ships got very full up and/or were stocking up with resources I didn't produce (coffee & corn). I quickly got up to 10 coins again & agonised over whether to go for a Harbour (your own ship) which would have been excellent seeing as I had the Wharf, but I noticed Nick was amassing lots of colonists & would probably look to buy the Residence (4VPs, +1 VP per 3 colonists) in the game as it would give him a siginificant number of bonus VPs. I decided to stir things up a bit by buying the Residence to Nick's dismay, but in part, I took this for myself because I was estimating this would also happen to be the 4VP building that would given me the most bonus points by the end of the game.
Ester was also rolling in the money with selling coffee & using her Small Market, which she used to buy the Guild Hall(?) (bonus points for production buildings). Michel was struggling for cash, although he seemed to be producing & shipping a lot. Julian was also producing a fair amount & had the Factory to gain extra doubloons with production. I think Nick ended up going for the 4VP building that gives bonus points for violet buildings, he wasn't exactly rolling in the money but he had two manned Quarries which helped him out enough. Both Michel & Julian had the Hacienda which also you to draw a bonus plantation in the Settler phase & it didn't seem like their draws were doing them any favours; I am personally not a fan of the Hacienda myself.
The game ended as a result of running out of colonists. Results:-
1st - Matt, 33pts & 7 doubloons.
2nd - Nick, 33pts & 6 doubloons! (3 doubloons, 3 corn)
3rd - Ester, 31pts.
4th & 5th - Michel & Julian (can't remember who won the tie-break).
Very close game, though unusually low-scoring as me, Nick & David pointed out.
I also had the pleasure of sitting next to Huggy, who was playing A Game Of Thrones. I took great delight in scattering his carefully arranged wooden pieces at his side twice & making sure he was not cheating!
Tuesday 13 January 2009
Right, I thought it was about time I put some kind of feline-related - and non-gaming! - post on here... makes sense since I've called this blog 'The Best Blog Concerning Games & Cats'!
Since I was born, we've lived around cats. My mother was (and still is, to a lesser extent) involved in Persian cat shows in a big way & years ago, it felt as though there was a conveyor belt with a new kitten every 6 months or so with a stunning & cute fluffy creature for the latest project. The most cats we've ever lived with was 20...! Yes, I know... a lot of dead mice & furballs!
Due to several reasons, the number of cats has now dwindled down to 7 - the main one being the 'cat boom' years turned into an aging population, which meant we've had a lot of nine lives being used up. It's much more manageable now - all the cats we have currently are Zendique exotics, which basically mean they're still Persian but with a short coat rather than being long-haired. It seems the latest trend in cats these days...
Since I was born, we've lived around cats. My mother was (and still is, to a lesser extent) involved in Persian cat shows in a big way & years ago, it felt as though there was a conveyor belt with a new kitten every 6 months or so with a stunning & cute fluffy creature for the latest project. The most cats we've ever lived with was 20...! Yes, I know... a lot of dead mice & furballs!
Due to several reasons, the number of cats has now dwindled down to 7 - the main one being the 'cat boom' years turned into an aging population, which meant we've had a lot of nine lives being used up. It's much more manageable now - all the cats we have currently are Zendique exotics, which basically mean they're still Persian but with a short coat rather than being long-haired. It seems the latest trend in cats these days...
The picture above; the white boy is Dylan & was made the first UK Imperial Grand Champion & UK Imperial Grand Premier at the height of his 'fame' a couple of years ago. Apparently, people still talk about him at cat shows. The grey boy (Iggy) is actually's my sister's & has done reasonably well - he looks very similar to a grey boy (Tzar) that my mum has at the moment.
Well, that's it. Probably not very interesting but thought it was worth adding a useless fact about me on here...
Friday 9 January 2009
First game of 2009 - Caylus
It was the first gaming session last night back at the Legion, after the previous two Thursday evenings fell on Christmas Day & New Year's Day. So it was good get back into a weekly routine.
Quite a big turn-out saw three games being played; a 4-player group, including two newbies (Esther & Julian), played Ticket To Ride:Marklin, 6 played the full number accommodated for in Pillars Of The Earth with the expansion.
Keith, Paul B, Andre & I played Caylus. I am extremely fond of worker-placement games, even though there seems to be increasingly more & more of these coming out, but I consider Caylus the best of them all even though I'm also fond of Agricola (which feels more of a fun game). After all, when Caylus first came out in 2004, it was considered by some the father of the worker placement mechanic. Despite my fondness for Caylus, it remains a game which I still feel I haven't quite mastered the best strategy/strategies to be pursuing so I tend to go on an instinctive basis as the game progress. Perhaps I just haven't played it enough yet (approx. 5 times)?
By the time the Dungeon scoring happened, both Keith & Andre were in the lead followed by me, then Paul B. All of us seemed to be managing to contribute to the building of the castle (you need 3 different resource cubes - one of which MUST be a food - per house) fairly equally & constructing a few buildings. No-one seemed to be in a particularly more advantageous position at this point.
By the time we reached the Walls scoring, I had noticed something significant something about Andre's game; he had built a number of buildings that the other three of us seemed to be using quite a lot in comparison & getting extra points - in particular, the buildings that provide more than one resource; Farm (two cloth or one food), Quarry (two stone) & Workshop (two stone & one cloth). I had a Stone building that I thought would be useful - Farm (two food & one cloth) - as this would give me a food or cloth in addition to a point each time someone else used it. I made a tit of myself when I placed a worker twice in Paul B's Mason to build a Stone Building... only to remember I wouldn't have any stone once the Mason was activated! Stupid.
The turning point in my strategy came when Keith built the Bank that allows you to buy 1 Gold for 2 coins or 2 Golds for 5 coins (Gold is worth 3pts apiece at game end) & I decided I would pursue a Gold-gathering strategy by collecting money where I could & buying it up, as well as placing a worker in the Mine. I also constructed the Alchemist that allows you to convert 2 resources into 1 Gold or 4 resources into 2 Gold as an alternative to buying if I needed it.
As we ended the last stage of the game, all apart from me had built a Residence to gain extra money in the collection phase & it became clear both Keith & Andre seemed to be working towards getting a Prestige building. Whether Andrew twigged that I was focusing on gathering Gold for game-end, I don't know, but I got the impression he was keen to speed the game up by moving the provost ahead of the balliff. Both Andre & Keith managed to build a Prestigue building by the last turn & it was looking close as I had 7 Gold cubes twinkling away...
Final scoring:-
1st - Andre, 74pts
2nd - Matt, 69pts
Keith - circa 60-62pts?
Paul B - circa 50-55pts?
A great game by all & I was left wondering what if I hadn't wasted those two worker placements? So slight is the line between success & failure....
Quite a big turn-out saw three games being played; a 4-player group, including two newbies (Esther & Julian), played Ticket To Ride:Marklin, 6 played the full number accommodated for in Pillars Of The Earth with the expansion.
Keith, Paul B, Andre & I played Caylus. I am extremely fond of worker-placement games, even though there seems to be increasingly more & more of these coming out, but I consider Caylus the best of them all even though I'm also fond of Agricola (which feels more of a fun game). After all, when Caylus first came out in 2004, it was considered by some the father of the worker placement mechanic. Despite my fondness for Caylus, it remains a game which I still feel I haven't quite mastered the best strategy/strategies to be pursuing so I tend to go on an instinctive basis as the game progress. Perhaps I just haven't played it enough yet (approx. 5 times)?
By the time the Dungeon scoring happened, both Keith & Andre were in the lead followed by me, then Paul B. All of us seemed to be managing to contribute to the building of the castle (you need 3 different resource cubes - one of which MUST be a food - per house) fairly equally & constructing a few buildings. No-one seemed to be in a particularly more advantageous position at this point.
By the time we reached the Walls scoring, I had noticed something significant something about Andre's game; he had built a number of buildings that the other three of us seemed to be using quite a lot in comparison & getting extra points - in particular, the buildings that provide more than one resource; Farm (two cloth or one food), Quarry (two stone) & Workshop (two stone & one cloth). I had a Stone building that I thought would be useful - Farm (two food & one cloth) - as this would give me a food or cloth in addition to a point each time someone else used it. I made a tit of myself when I placed a worker twice in Paul B's Mason to build a Stone Building... only to remember I wouldn't have any stone once the Mason was activated! Stupid.
The turning point in my strategy came when Keith built the Bank that allows you to buy 1 Gold for 2 coins or 2 Golds for 5 coins (Gold is worth 3pts apiece at game end) & I decided I would pursue a Gold-gathering strategy by collecting money where I could & buying it up, as well as placing a worker in the Mine. I also constructed the Alchemist that allows you to convert 2 resources into 1 Gold or 4 resources into 2 Gold as an alternative to buying if I needed it.
As we ended the last stage of the game, all apart from me had built a Residence to gain extra money in the collection phase & it became clear both Keith & Andre seemed to be working towards getting a Prestige building. Whether Andrew twigged that I was focusing on gathering Gold for game-end, I don't know, but I got the impression he was keen to speed the game up by moving the provost ahead of the balliff. Both Andre & Keith managed to build a Prestigue building by the last turn & it was looking close as I had 7 Gold cubes twinkling away...
Final scoring:-
1st - Andre, 74pts
2nd - Matt, 69pts
Keith - circa 60-62pts?
Paul B - circa 50-55pts?
A great game by all & I was left wondering what if I hadn't wasted those two worker placements? So slight is the line between success & failure....
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