Suitable film for a Boys' Night Out!
Sunday, 28 January 2018
Viticulture - 17 January 2018
A second play of Adrian's new game Viticulture whilst the rules were still fresh in our minds from the previous week. This game has a number of random elements but still manages to be wonderfully well-balanced, as evidenced by the scores: Adrian and David both on 25, James and Stuart both on 22, requiring the final positions to be resolved by tie-breakers. Great game.
Saturday, 13 January 2018
Viticulture, 10 January 2018
This week we tried Adrian's birthday game Viticulture - the 'Essential Edition' which comprises various of the expansion packs. The game is set in Tuscany where players compete to win renown points by producing and shipping the most lucrative wine orders.
The game is beautifully produced, with lovely meeples and excellent graphic design. Essentially it's a worker placement mechanism but there is a fair bit of luck given that 4 card decks (two with considerable variation) drive players' options.
All the players essentially followed the same strategy, with the cards forcing each of us to attempt to optimise in different ways. It was pretty close at the top - all depending on orders that could be potentially completed on the last turn - and we all felt it was a fun game with good replay value.
Final scores: David 26, James 25, Stu 21 and Adrian 17.
The game is beautifully produced, with lovely meeples and excellent graphic design. Essentially it's a worker placement mechanism but there is a fair bit of luck given that 4 card decks (two with considerable variation) drive players' options.
All the players essentially followed the same strategy, with the cards forcing each of us to attempt to optimise in different ways. It was pretty close at the top - all depending on orders that could be potentially completed on the last turn - and we all felt it was a fun game with good replay value.
Final scores: David 26, James 25, Stu 21 and Adrian 17.
Sunday, 7 January 2018
Bank Robbery - 30 December 2017
A visit from Stuart was a good excuse to put on a figures game. These have often been big games with multiple objectives for different players requiring a lot of pre - and as a consequence are played very rarely - so I wanted to try and set something up quickly, using one of the in-built scenarios from the Legends of the Old West rule book. We had played Bank Robbery before with four players, splitting the two posses into two halves. This time James played the bank robbers and Stuart the lawmen.
The table was four feet square with MDF and card buildings making up part of Whitewash City:
The lawmen had to split their posse between two table edges - the second selected after the bank robbers had deployed and indicated the edge they would aim to escape across.
The bank robbers started in and around the bank, with a safe and two strongboxes carried by three of the characters.
Players were allowed to move three of the dozen townspeople (non-player characters) in each movement phase. Stuart heartlessly used this to set up a screen between the lawmen and bank robbers but hadn't realised how ruthless the robbers would be - their "Life is cheap" characteristic means they will shoot at opponents regardless of whether they will hit friends or bystanders. Which they did, taking out a barman and later a musician harmlessly playing a fiddle.
The bank robbers movement was halved due to the loot from the bank but they dropped their booty in order to rush into a huge fistfight that was happening between the rest of their gang and the lawmen.
The bank robbers were getting knocked out quicker than the lawmen, enabling Stuart to gang up.
Ultimately, all the bank robbers were taken out by turn 15 and their takings returned to the safety of the bank. A few lawmen were lost but the game was Stuart's.
Getting stuff out of the loft and set up took a little while, but it was reassuring that this game could be done with less prep than I remembered, and played in about ninety minutes. So a New Year's Resolution is to get more figures game on the table this year. (Admittedly, we make this resolution most years but I will try harder this time!)
The table was four feet square with MDF and card buildings making up part of Whitewash City:
The lawmen had to split their posse between two table edges - the second selected after the bank robbers had deployed and indicated the edge they would aim to escape across.
The bank robbers started in and around the bank, with a safe and two strongboxes carried by three of the characters.
Players were allowed to move three of the dozen townspeople (non-player characters) in each movement phase. Stuart heartlessly used this to set up a screen between the lawmen and bank robbers but hadn't realised how ruthless the robbers would be - their "Life is cheap" characteristic means they will shoot at opponents regardless of whether they will hit friends or bystanders. Which they did, taking out a barman and later a musician harmlessly playing a fiddle.
The bank robbers movement was halved due to the loot from the bank but they dropped their booty in order to rush into a huge fistfight that was happening between the rest of their gang and the lawmen.
The bank robbers were getting knocked out quicker than the lawmen, enabling Stuart to gang up.
Ultimately, all the bank robbers were taken out by turn 15 and their takings returned to the safety of the bank. A few lawmen were lost but the game was Stuart's.
Getting stuff out of the loft and set up took a little while, but it was reassuring that this game could be done with less prep than I remembered, and played in about ninety minutes. So a New Year's Resolution is to get more figures game on the table this year. (Admittedly, we make this resolution most years but I will try harder this time!)
Friday, 5 January 2018
Village & Spice Road - 2 January 2018
Final games night with Kieron before he set off for Africa the following day. First game was Village where we mostly stuck with our usual strategies - James travelling, David to church, Andy to market - and Kieron to the council, where he coined it in for several turns. For the first time, Andy's strategy paid off and he scored 54 points ahead of the rest of the group clustered together: David 46. James 45, and Kieron 43.
Then we introduced Kieron to David's excellent game Spice Road. This is a clever card game where players build up hands of cards to grow and enhance their spice resources, and compete with each other to get the right spices to buy up market cards. Final scores: James 64, Andy 56, David 52, Kieron 50.
Then we introduced Kieron to David's excellent game Spice Road. This is a clever card game where players build up hands of cards to grow and enhance their spice resources, and compete with each other to get the right spices to buy up market cards. Final scores: James 64, Andy 56, David 52, Kieron 50.
Peloponnes & Ra - 29 December 2017
Last games night of 2017 and a double win for Stuart. First game was Peloponnes where Stuart got a very balanced score of Population 36 (with a 4x card) and Prestige 37. Other scores were David 33/28, Kieron 27/34, Andy 33/24 and James 24/27.
The second game was Ra where Stuart managed to get through the first epoch with only one winning bid and still sitting on his 16 tile. Despite this and thanks to an impressive collection of five Civilization tiles in the second epoch, and getting five extra points from James at the end due to having the highest sum of bidding counters, he won the game! Final scores: Stuart 38, James 37, David 34, Andy 31 and Kieron 28.
The second game was Ra where Stuart managed to get through the first epoch with only one winning bid and still sitting on his 16 tile. Despite this and thanks to an impressive collection of five Civilization tiles in the second epoch, and getting five extra points from James at the end due to having the highest sum of bidding counters, he won the game! Final scores: Stuart 38, James 37, David 34, Andy 31 and Kieron 28.
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