Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Tuesday 29th August
In attendance:Adrian Barnard
Huw Morris
Simon Waldman
Ian Jenkins
Ralph Grimble
Ian and Simon were both joining us for the second time.
Ian had brought along Martin Wallace's Liberte, probably more in hope than expectation of actually playing it. As I am a great fan of Age of Steam, Princes of the Renaissance and Struggle of Empires, this was a game I was quite anxious to try. While waiting for everybody to turn up, we decided to have a look at it, and ended up giving it a go. Ian had only played one 3-player game, and even then hadn't got the rules completely right, and the rest of us had never played it at all. We agreed that this was a 'learning' game, and played with no expectation of a) playing with any strategy at all, and b) finishing the game.
Liberte
We started turn 1 with only a basic idea of playing cards to add markers to the board. The moderates won the election, with the Royalists as the opposition. Ian got quite mercilessly picked upon with cards like Bread Shortages, especially in Paris, which was probably enough for Simon to emerge as the leader, with Ian in second place. I was the leader of the Opposition.
In turn 2, battles come into play, and Ian, Adrian and myself had a go for the bonus. However, some ruthless guillotining of the generals ensured that nobody actually got the bonus. This turn ended surprisingly quickly, as quite a few moderate markers were still in play from turn 1. In particular, I hardly got to place anything on the board at all. (I was however, starting to get a grasp of the game, and was planning ahead... :-) The moderates won this election as well, but this time the extremists were in opposition. Ian got first place here (thanks to a 3-stack in Paris) with Adrian in second. Ralph was the opposition leader.
By turn 3, I had my cunning plan. The idea was to ride out turn 3, hoping for an extremist landslide, and if that failed, to go for a counter-revolution in turn 4. I'd been holding on to my large white and red cards through turn 2, while discarding all my blue cards. As it happened, lots of other large extremist cards came out, and lots of extremist markers went down on the board. Even so, we were all in agreement that the extremists would win the election, but fall just short of the landslide. And then...oops. In a classic 'first game' blunder, we'd all neglected the fact that Paris had a 3-stack of extremists, and that might tip things over the edge. In the end, it was Ralph who had to make the decision, whether to use one of his personalities to win a crucual province for the extremists. In truth, I think he did it to end the game, since it was about 10:50. Ralph probably thought he had a chance of winning this route - he knew I was also strong, but he didn't know just how much more red I had in my hand. Ralph was also doing pretty well on the points track, so it was probably a bit of a gamble for him. With more time and experience in the game, maybe he wouldn't have done it.
The points track at the end of turn 3, without applying the end of turn points was: Ian 8, Simon 7, Ralph 7, Huw 3, Adrian 3. However the extremists had won a landslide election, and these scores were now irrelevent. I had a healthy stack of red counters in front of me, on the board and in the hand, and it was enough to give me an easy victory: Huw 20, Ralph 16, Ian 12, Adrian 10, Simon 3.
On first playing, I liked this game a lot. There are many things to consider, and the timing of playing your powerful cards seems to be very important. In future, I expect people to be more cagey on turn 1, and players in the lead on the points track need to be very aware of landslide or counter-revolution victories. I was also pleasantly surprised that the game is easily playable in an evening. We only struggled for time because we started late, and then had to learn the rules. I would like to give this another go with 5 players as soon as possible.
Adrian adds:
Er, so we try to get the most influence in, er, any political party but the government is best. Meanwhile generals are being beheaded, at least my Napoleon was only purged. All sorts of dirty tricks and chicanery are being practiced with massed murder planned for the next turn, as well a sneak counter revolution when the Jacobean party leapt to the fore with a landslide victory in the third turn and the guy planning the royalist counter revolution wins out as chief Jacobite! (need one ask, it was Huw!) At least as the politics swirled around in the multi possible endings to the game the surprise result saw 1st relegated to last allowing me in to 4th / 5! Greatly enjoyed the game, look forward to playing it again.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tuesday 22nd August
(pic shamelessly stolen from boardgamegeek)In attendance:
Adrian Barnard
Simon Mawdsley
Steve Sykes
Janet Rintoul
Huw and Ralph were absent, since Hayseed Dixie were in town. Fortunately, there were still enough people for a gaming night. Simon M had been talking about playing Power Grid for some weeks, so that was brought out.
Power Grid
(Report from Adrian)
Germany map; North, North East, Central East and Central West
territories in play.
The game ran out of time just after stage 2 was attained with stage 3
set to arrive the next turn.
The game didn't start until later than normal awaiting arrivals from Steve and Janet from Reading, and in consequence perhaps should have been deferred for a shorter game. However it left a healthy discussion on how things could have panned out.
Adrian did well in the first couple of turns picking up two power 2 stations, but
then stalled due to no cash for a turn allowing catch up. As the game
continued on it was evident that Adrian had the south of Germany all to
himself with the others fighting it out in the north / central areas.
Simon M continued to stay near the front despite being in a poor position
- not good in this game! Janet got a bit hemmed in at the top but pretty
much always managed first purchase on anything in so doing and Steve who
had made the choice to expand north from the centre had made good and in
stage 2 pushed south and had a very successful network. The closing
positions were Steve 11 fully powered cities, Simon 10 fully powered
cities, Janet 9/10 powered cities and Adrian 8/10 powered cities. All
players were cash rich at this stage in the order of Steve, Simon,
Adrian, Janet. There was no real competition for resources given the mix
of stations out there, perhaps some pressure on oil and coal. All
players had room to expand and likely the game would have lasted two
more turns. Steve and Simon had efficient 5 power for 2 unit stations of
oil and coal Janet and Adrian had a less efficient set up but again the
next turn would have seen their improvements realised, whereas the
others would have had no reason to bid for 'improved stations'. The
discussion at the end leaned towards Steve carrying a win but all agreed
it could have gone in any direction.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Tuesday 15th August
In Attendance:
Huw Morris
Ralph Grimble
Adrian Barnard
Only the three of us this week - a pretty poor show by recent standards. Still, there are plenty of good games that work with three players, so that's no problem. New landlord at the pub, but so far it doesn't appear it will cause a problem. In fact, we might have picked up a new gamer, since the guy behind the bar seemed very interested in joining in!
Adrian had brought along Amun Re, so we decided to give that a go.
Amun Re
We had all played this game before, but not in a long time. We had to spend a while going over the rules before we were ready to start. In the first era, I drew a load of bonus cards, but all of them seemed to be the type that give you three points for satisfying some criteria in the scoring round. With only three players, it's almost impossible to score more than one, since not all the territories are put up for auction. Anyway, Adrian and I took the bonus for biggest pyramid on each side of the river, and Adrian had a one point lead over me at halftime, with Ralph a few points back.
In the second era I made a couple of key plays which again secured me the largest pyramid bonus on one side of the river, while Ralph was able to take the bonus from Adrian on the other side. Ralph actually made up a lot of ground in the second era including the most money at the end, but it was just not quite enough. Final score: Huw 41 Adrian 34 Ralph 32.
This was the first time that I had played the game by focussing on exactly where the points are coming from, and it paid off. I'd like to play a few more times because I think I've finally seen the strategies you can employ. We all agreed that Amun Re is a decent game for three players, but would probably be improved with more. In particular, the auctions have more permutations with more players and more of the territories become available.
Adrian's comments:
A quiet night, but as ever, great company and an enjoyable game. Amun – Re.
The usual whinge from the winner half way through that he’d been playing like a donkey – 2nd/3 by 1 point, does that decry my game play / luck being in 1st? The 2nd half of the match pretty much hinged on taking a central territory I’d managed to build up well earlier. I had my ace up the sleeve in the form of a block card to prevent bidding up a mere 1 level. Huw however with a lot of money left from the first half had a card allowing him to bid above my bid – albeit 2 ahead, I had only to hope he now wouldn’t have the money to exploit the tactical win on the final bidding round,… Yeah right, like Huw makes errors like that! He’d actually pitched his bid at the calculated level to get all to bid exactly as they did. I’d love to say that sometimes I make unexpected moves to confuse his calculations, I’m sure in reality we know the truth and the result is only ever further capitalisation on the,… less than perfect response.
Plan B still enabled a second place for me but Huw soared into the lead complaining we’d knocked out various of his bonus scoring cards! I think Ralph ended up with a lot of bad breaks within the group that were re-learning the game, the usual last minute surge forward still only managed the 3rd place though the gap closed was large. I have to say I think I pretty much had all the right bonus cards at the right time, so I guess that makes for a less than perfect strategy on my part.
[Adrian – the carrot (one ahead of the donkey at half time! – Damn but he’s got sharp teeth and a long reach)]
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Tuesday 8th August
In attendance:
Huw Morris
Simon Mawdsley
Simon Canter
Adrian Barnard
Ralph Grimble
Michael Mol
Simon Waldman
Phil ?
Simon W and Phil joined us for the first time. Simon and Michael were delayed, leaving us with 6 to start with. Given the experience of last week, Simon M thought Reef Encounter would be playable in an evening with 3 players, as long as two of them knew how to play the game. Therefore, I joined Simon M and Simon C in a game of that, since the two Simons tried it out for the first time last week. Adrian, Ralph and Phil played a quick Carcassonne, knowing that the other two were expected.
Reef Encounter
As I said, this was my first time. Explaining the rules took a little while, and to be honest, I was at least a third of the way though the game before I really started to understand it. (Usually I'm the one teaching!) Simon C was the first to eat a big reef putting him apparently in the lead. Simon M spent a lot of time doing nothing with his turns. Whether that was because I was inadvertently taking the wrong colour cube each time I don't know! About midway through the game I realised how important it is to eat reefs, and I ate mine as quicikly as I could, hastening the end of the game. I won quite comfortably, 50 points, to 32 Simon C and 26 Simon M. It could have been much closer if Simon C had spotted a last chance to lock black in as a dominant colour, when he had the most black tiles. I liked this game a lot - even though I do tend to like games I win! - and I think I agree with Simon M that this game is probably best in 3 player. There's nothing to do outside your turn, and some turns can be a little involved, so 4 player would simply add to the downtime. There's an awful lot to consider on your turn, so I think a few more games of this are in order.
Carcassone
Ralph, Adrian and Phil (novice) played a quick basic game, finishing in that order. By they time they had finished, Simon W and Michael had turned up, so a game with the River expansion was played.
In both games Phil took an early lead but lost out big time in the later part and especially on the farms. Ralph uncharacteristically dropped way back in the second game, while making a fantastic recovery the distance was just too far to travel. Adrian’s second game win was facilitated by completing a couple of medium cities alone and holding his own with the farms.
Result: 1 Adrian, 2/3 Ralph & Michael (novice), 4 Simon W (novice), 5 Phil
Liar's Dice
There was still some time left so we had a game of Liar's Dice. Simon W departed, and Adrian sat out, leaving the other 6 to play 3 games. I don't remember too much about it, but it's a game which really shines with the right crowd and 6 players. An excellent closer. I won one game, Michael won one, and I don't remember who won the other.
Huw Morris
Simon Mawdsley
Simon Canter
Adrian Barnard
Ralph Grimble
Michael Mol
Simon Waldman
Phil ?
Simon W and Phil joined us for the first time. Simon and Michael were delayed, leaving us with 6 to start with. Given the experience of last week, Simon M thought Reef Encounter would be playable in an evening with 3 players, as long as two of them knew how to play the game. Therefore, I joined Simon M and Simon C in a game of that, since the two Simons tried it out for the first time last week. Adrian, Ralph and Phil played a quick Carcassonne, knowing that the other two were expected.
Reef Encounter
As I said, this was my first time. Explaining the rules took a little while, and to be honest, I was at least a third of the way though the game before I really started to understand it. (Usually I'm the one teaching!) Simon C was the first to eat a big reef putting him apparently in the lead. Simon M spent a lot of time doing nothing with his turns. Whether that was because I was inadvertently taking the wrong colour cube each time I don't know! About midway through the game I realised how important it is to eat reefs, and I ate mine as quicikly as I could, hastening the end of the game. I won quite comfortably, 50 points, to 32 Simon C and 26 Simon M. It could have been much closer if Simon C had spotted a last chance to lock black in as a dominant colour, when he had the most black tiles. I liked this game a lot - even though I do tend to like games I win! - and I think I agree with Simon M that this game is probably best in 3 player. There's nothing to do outside your turn, and some turns can be a little involved, so 4 player would simply add to the downtime. There's an awful lot to consider on your turn, so I think a few more games of this are in order.
Carcassone
Ralph, Adrian and Phil (novice) played a quick basic game, finishing in that order. By they time they had finished, Simon W and Michael had turned up, so a game with the River expansion was played.
In both games Phil took an early lead but lost out big time in the later part and especially on the farms. Ralph uncharacteristically dropped way back in the second game, while making a fantastic recovery the distance was just too far to travel. Adrian’s second game win was facilitated by completing a couple of medium cities alone and holding his own with the farms.
Result: 1 Adrian, 2/3 Ralph & Michael (novice), 4 Simon W (novice), 5 Phil
Liar's Dice
There was still some time left so we had a game of Liar's Dice. Simon W departed, and Adrian sat out, leaving the other 6 to play 3 games. I don't remember too much about it, but it's a game which really shines with the right crowd and 6 players. An excellent closer. I won one game, Michael won one, and I don't remember who won the other.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Tuesday 1st August
In attendance:
Huw Morris
Michael Mol
Ian Jenkins
Rob ?
Adrian Barnard
Simon Long
Stephen Sykes
Janet Rintoul
Simon Mawdsley
Simon Canter
Ralph Grimble
Andrea ?
Wow! 12 people is a record, at least in the last couple of years.
Ian, Rob and Andrea joined us for the first time. Michael, Stephen and Janet are all regulars who have been unable to come down recently.
Ian wanted to play Taj Mahal, so that was one of the games, Simon M had brought Reef Encounter and Adrian had brought St. Petersburg. Rob and Andrea were expected, but hadn't arrived, so we set up with Adrian, Simon L, Stephen and Janet playing St. Petersburg; Simon M, Ralph and Simon C playing Reef Encounter and Huw, Ian, and Michael playing Taj Mahal. Just as we were about to start Rob and Andrea arrived. Rob joined the Taj Mahal group and Andrea the Reef Encounter.
Taj Mahal:
This was the first time Ian and Rob had played. Michael had played once. I had played a few times, but not recently, and I had to read the rulebook myself to remind me of how to actually play it. Taj Mahal is one of those games which is quite easy to pick up, but pretty difficult to play well, and I didn't need to offer much in the way of advice, as the others were quickly into the swing of it. Ian raced into an early lead, but Michael and I soon caught up. Midgame, Rob, who had been trailing horribly, put on a spurt and caught up as well. With the game 2/3rd gone, it was very tight, and anybody could have won. In the end, Ian raced away for the win, with Michael in second, and I was just behind in third. Rob had sadly been left behind again and was some way back. Nice one, Ian, that was pretty impressive for a first play. Despite being a first playing, we finished by 10pm. I hadn't remembered that Taj Mahal is so short.
Reef Encounter:
Nobody had played this before, although Simon M had at least read through the rules. Reef Encounter is a pretty complex game from what I can gather, and it took the group a while to get going. In the end, they called a halt to the game shortly after 11pm, when it became apparent that the game wasn't going to be finished in time. Afterwards, the impressions from the group were pretty positive. Simon M felt that 3 would be a better number of players than 4 because of the downtime, and that if all the players knew how to play, the game is easily completable in an evening. I know from past experience just how hard it is to play a game when nobody has played before - it always seems to take about twice as long as it should, as you constantly check the rules. Still, it's one I'd like to play myself sometime.
St. Petersburg:
All players had played this before, although in Stephen and Janet's case, not for a long time. Adrian won by a mile. St. Petersburg is fairly light and quick (by our standards) for a main game, and they were also done by 10pm.
Michael, Adrian and Simon L then had to depart. This left me, Ian, Rob, Stephen and Janet to finish off with a few rounds of Frank's Zoo.
Frank's Zoo: This was a new purchase of mine after I didn't see any big box games in Gameskeeper. It's a pretty silly but fun little card game. Ian dropped out after the first round, but the rest of us played another two rounds before we called a halt. All I can remember is that just about every round, Janet got stuck with one unplayable card in her hand and ended up losing every round!
So, a good evening, even if the pub was unusually noisy. Most nights, we're the only ones in that part of the bar by about 8:30. Tonight, it never really emptied, and there was one particularly loud group playing Yahtzee. Hopefully, we'll see the new guys again.
Huw Morris
Michael Mol
Ian Jenkins
Rob ?
Adrian Barnard
Simon Long
Stephen Sykes
Janet Rintoul
Simon Mawdsley
Simon Canter
Ralph Grimble
Andrea ?
Wow! 12 people is a record, at least in the last couple of years.
Ian, Rob and Andrea joined us for the first time. Michael, Stephen and Janet are all regulars who have been unable to come down recently.
Ian wanted to play Taj Mahal, so that was one of the games, Simon M had brought Reef Encounter and Adrian had brought St. Petersburg. Rob and Andrea were expected, but hadn't arrived, so we set up with Adrian, Simon L, Stephen and Janet playing St. Petersburg; Simon M, Ralph and Simon C playing Reef Encounter and Huw, Ian, and Michael playing Taj Mahal. Just as we were about to start Rob and Andrea arrived. Rob joined the Taj Mahal group and Andrea the Reef Encounter.
Taj Mahal:
This was the first time Ian and Rob had played. Michael had played once. I had played a few times, but not recently, and I had to read the rulebook myself to remind me of how to actually play it. Taj Mahal is one of those games which is quite easy to pick up, but pretty difficult to play well, and I didn't need to offer much in the way of advice, as the others were quickly into the swing of it. Ian raced into an early lead, but Michael and I soon caught up. Midgame, Rob, who had been trailing horribly, put on a spurt and caught up as well. With the game 2/3rd gone, it was very tight, and anybody could have won. In the end, Ian raced away for the win, with Michael in second, and I was just behind in third. Rob had sadly been left behind again and was some way back. Nice one, Ian, that was pretty impressive for a first play. Despite being a first playing, we finished by 10pm. I hadn't remembered that Taj Mahal is so short.
Reef Encounter:
Nobody had played this before, although Simon M had at least read through the rules. Reef Encounter is a pretty complex game from what I can gather, and it took the group a while to get going. In the end, they called a halt to the game shortly after 11pm, when it became apparent that the game wasn't going to be finished in time. Afterwards, the impressions from the group were pretty positive. Simon M felt that 3 would be a better number of players than 4 because of the downtime, and that if all the players knew how to play, the game is easily completable in an evening. I know from past experience just how hard it is to play a game when nobody has played before - it always seems to take about twice as long as it should, as you constantly check the rules. Still, it's one I'd like to play myself sometime.
St. Petersburg:
All players had played this before, although in Stephen and Janet's case, not for a long time. Adrian won by a mile. St. Petersburg is fairly light and quick (by our standards) for a main game, and they were also done by 10pm.
Michael, Adrian and Simon L then had to depart. This left me, Ian, Rob, Stephen and Janet to finish off with a few rounds of Frank's Zoo.
Frank's Zoo: This was a new purchase of mine after I didn't see any big box games in Gameskeeper. It's a pretty silly but fun little card game. Ian dropped out after the first round, but the rest of us played another two rounds before we called a halt. All I can remember is that just about every round, Janet got stuck with one unplayable card in her hand and ended up losing every round!
So, a good evening, even if the pub was unusually noisy. Most nights, we're the only ones in that part of the bar by about 8:30. Tonight, it never really emptied, and there was one particularly loud group playing Yahtzee. Hopefully, we'll see the new guys again.
