Lifeboats, Really Nasty Motor Racing Game - 21 January 2009

A full turn-out (if perhaps an unexpected one) for games at Stuart's this week. Kieron introduced the first new game, Lifeboats, also known as 'Rette Sich Wer Kann' ('Each Man for Himself') which gives a better indication of what's in store.

The players each have two officers and four sailors on a ship that is going down. There are a set of lifeboats with limited spaces and islands in the distance. Each turn, the players vote for which boat springs another leak, which moves towards the islands, and then each can hop a sailor between boats. As the boats start taking in water, the occupants throw each other out to stop the boat sinking!

The voting is clever. Following negotiations (which we kept pretty short), each player places a card face down that either represents a colour or a Captain. The colour with the most votes gets the result of the particular phase e.g. white boat moves forward, yellow sailor thrown overboard. The Captain is the trump card but if more than one are played, they have no effect and are lost - and each player only has three to last the whole game.

This isn't the kind of game where thinking about your strategy is much use. Played fast and frantic, it's just supposed to be a fun game.

The second game we played was David's Christmas present to James - the Really Nasty Motor Racing Game. And so it was disappointing for both of them, that it didn't live up to the high production values and good reputation of the Really Nasty Horse Racing Game. You couldn't really balance your own risk and reward, and once the Really Nasty cards ran out, it was a simple kids game of "throw dice, move counter". Sadly, this became one of the very few (only?) games that we have abandoned halfway through.

Askari, 15 January 2009

The first 28mm skirmish game for 2009 featuring a brand new prototype set of rules by Adrian and Fred.  The scenario saw a column of Brits with their plunder trying to abscond from the lost city (starting position immediately above), but pursued by hordes of angry natives and their Arab slaver allies.  Kieron played the Thin Red Line of British foot, James the British Naval Brigade, David the Ngoni tribesmen and Andy the Fiendish Arabs.

At the first sign of danger (2 of James' matelots being gunned down by the Arabs from the cover of the jungle) the Brits abandoned the column to seek out and occupy strong defensive positions in the ruined buildings.  The Naval Brigade was beset by the Arabs on the column's left flank, having some success in holding off the musketmen and killing a couple, but eventually succumbing to an Arab assault to the rear of the position.  On the right flank, the Ngoni mounted a spirited charge, their first wave falling almost to a man in the killing zone between the remaining three British squads, but the second wave pushing on.  By the time we called a halt, the natives had pushed the Brits back and had killed around half of the soldiers, in return for about half their number killed.  The bearers with the plunder (and the Expedition's Sponsor Sir Cuthbert Bertangle and his larvely new wife Lady Fanny) escaped - but probably more due to the Umpire miscalculating move distances than tactical genius from the British players.  But no matter, it was fun.

As for the rules, they worked very well for a first go.  The concepts owe a fair amount of inspiration to Dominion, but for a game without dice it worked nicely and will be almost certainly better for next time.

Dominion, 7 January 2009

The first Wednesday game of the New Year was at David's - Dominion, a new purchase by Adrian.  This new 2-4 player Rio Grande game is currently ranking 6th on Boardgamegeek with an 8.18 score (see http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/36218) and we found that it had some real potential.

Each player starts off with an identical deck of 10 cards (a mixture of resources and victory points) and aims, through using resources to buy new 'Action' cards and through playing these Action cards to gain other advantages and hence get more cards, to end the game with the greatest number of victory points in their deck.  The game is thus a bit like building a deck for a collectable card game in real time.  Happily, Dominion is complete as to itself - coming with 500 cards and no need for expansions ever.

The beauty of the game lies in various design concepts (not all original but still clever).  Firstly, you have to build a balanced deck so that the number of Action cards, Resource cards and Victory point cards complement each other.  Too many Action cards and you don't have enough Resource cards to buy stuff; too many Victory points early on and you don't have enough Action or Resource cards to build your deck.  Secondly, each turn (which is quick so there's no sitting around) allows you to play from a hand of only 5 cards - so you have to optimise your dek such that the combination of 5 cards that you're likely to draw from your deck each turn gives you the best possibilities for further building.   Thirdly, there are 10 types of Action card available in each game - out of a total of 25 types.  These interact with each other to allow combos of actions (or 'chaining' as it came to be known) such that you can pursue separate strategies.  The suite of 10 Action card sets also makes each game very different...

So, after that long preamble...  For the first game we played with the recommended starting set of Action cards.  Immediately various strategies were followed - Kieron as chief belligerent who developed a deck with lots of Militia (which, when played, reduce all the others' hands to 3 cards for their turn, limiting their options); Adrian who went for the Smithy and Moat approach (Moat to defend against Kieron's Militias and both Smithy and Moat allow you to burn through lots of cards in the deck, allowing rapid re-use of Resources); David who developed card chaining very early with the Village, Market and Mine combo (burns through multiple Action cards, upgrades Resources); and Stu who seemed to have no real strategy - but who nevertheless won, so clearly his strategy was just too clever and inscrutable for the rest of us...  Game 1: Stu 30; Deej 21; Adrian 19; Kieron 15.  

For Game 2 we replaced the little-used Remodel card with the Thief - which allows the burglary of others' Resources.  This addition changed the complexion of the game utterly: no one wanted to build up large Resources in their decks for fear of them being nicked.  Instead we all played to get low numbers of Victory points much more quickly - and everyone had sussed chaining by then.  Result: much shorter game.  Kieron 12; Stu 10; Adrian 9; Deej 3.

For Game 3 we changed the complexion again, taking out the best chaining card (Village) and ditching the Thief and replacing them with Library and Moneylender.  This set made long chaining much harder which led to again slightly different strategies employed.  Result: Deej 23; Adrian 17; Kieron 17; Stu 16.

So, by the end of the evening we'd learned the rules, played 3 games and encountered (only) 13 of the 25 Action card sets.  The game doesn't have the Derrening potential of greats such as Ra and Princes of Florence, but by gum its clever, pacey, and has lots of replay potential.  It would also be a great travel game, just being cards.  So, all in all, another great Rivals evening and a great game for the cupboard.