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.
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