And an hour left for a quick game of "Merciless" - the four player cowboy game with the ingenious and nail-biting IOU / Pay Day mechanism. Lots of fun as always. A close game with a final pay day leaving us all very short of money but unusually nobody was bankrupted at any point. Final score was exactly the same order as the first game: James, David, Stuart and Kieron. I'm posting a separate blog entry thanks to David pointing out that this means I can get credit in the tag tally for both my wins :-)
I'm sure I won't be the last to do it....
Showing posts with label Gnadenlos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gnadenlos. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Ticket To Ride, Gnadenlos - 3 June 2009
A welcome return for Ticket To Ride. Scoring in the building phase was pretty well-balanced but the variety of success in satisfying the Destination Tickets saw quite a spread in the final reckoning, with Kieron going backwards to 54, Adrian and David jumping forward to 113 and 118 respectively, and James taking first place with four fortuitously close routes and 145 points.
Four players meant a chance to get out the cowboy game Gnadenlos. Usually quite quick, this somehow ended up taking 90 mins as well and despite never managing to rustle up a proper posse, Adrian won the game with his succession of winning cowpokes.
Four players meant a chance to get out the cowboy game Gnadenlos. Usually quite quick, this somehow ended up taking 90 mins as well and despite never managing to rustle up a proper posse, Adrian won the game with his succession of winning cowpokes.
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Hamburgum, Gnadenlos - 5 February 2009
The first outing of James' games from Kieron this Christmas - Hamburgum. Players produce beer, sugar and cloth and sell these goods with their ships overseas. They compete over the best sites for their buildings and the best berths for their ships in the harbour. These activities generate money which is used to make church donations which bring the prestige points which win you the game.
A beautifully produced game with quality pieces and cards - even little working bells that are required to complete the building of each church. The rules, cards and even the board have both German and English sides (to get used to the game, we played the fully English-marked reverse side, Londinium). A range of nice mechanisms - goods whose value declines as production increases, ships whose ability to take goods decrease as they age, and the rondel from Antike is used to select actions each turn (since Hamburgum and Antike were designed by the same person).
The game doesn't have huge amounts of player interaction (no real Derren-ing opportunities) but players do compete for cards and locations, and most importantly for completing the construction of churches. And amazingly we even finished the game in the 75-90 minutes it suggested on the box!
Final scores were Stuart 89, David 66, James 55 and Kieron 51, although we had all missed a rule that limited the purchase of a particular type of building to one per turn, so Stuart's impressive lead was probably just a healthy one, but still a good win to Stu with his uncanny knack of gripping how to win games the first time we play them. We agreed to play this again soon-ish with the variant that introduces a wider range of citizen cards.
With the game finished by 10.30 and the forecast snow yet to start falling, the cowboy game Gnadenlos made another appearance. Such a clever little game. With Kieron getting the only bankrupt marker in the last Pay Day of the game, the final order was David, James, Stu and Kieron.
A beautifully produced game with quality pieces and cards - even little working bells that are required to complete the building of each church. The rules, cards and even the board have both German and English sides (to get used to the game, we played the fully English-marked reverse side, Londinium). A range of nice mechanisms - goods whose value declines as production increases, ships whose ability to take goods decrease as they age, and the rondel from Antike is used to select actions each turn (since Hamburgum and Antike were designed by the same person).
The game doesn't have huge amounts of player interaction (no real Derren-ing opportunities) but players do compete for cards and locations, and most importantly for completing the construction of churches. And amazingly we even finished the game in the 75-90 minutes it suggested on the box!
Final scores were Stuart 89, David 66, James 55 and Kieron 51, although we had all missed a rule that limited the purchase of a particular type of building to one per turn, so Stuart's impressive lead was probably just a healthy one, but still a good win to Stu with his uncanny knack of gripping how to win games the first time we play them. We agreed to play this again soon-ish with the variant that introduces a wider range of citizen cards.
With the game finished by 10.30 and the forecast snow yet to start falling, the cowboy game Gnadenlos made another appearance. Such a clever little game. With Kieron getting the only bankrupt marker in the last Pay Day of the game, the final order was David, James, Stu and Kieron.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Gnadenlos! - 19 November 2008
This was the first outing for Gnadenlos! or "Merciless" in English. Andy bought it for James at Colours in September after watching him pick it up and put it down about three or four times. In the game, players take the role of businessmen in a Wild West gold rush town who hire prospectors to work for them. These characters then compete to pan for gold, fight in shootouts, or play poker.
The cunning (and new to us) game mechanism is that these characters are acquired through bidding with IOU chits, and the IOUs are cashed in when triggered at later points in the game. There is also the possibility of retrieving IOUs, including those belonging to other players, which one can then use to bid again - but the IOU still has to be settled by the original player.
We felt this was a great Rivals game. Nice concept, neat mechanisms, good balance of skill and luck, and plenty of opportunities for interaction and laughter. Plus it can be played in hour.
Stuart won the first game, with Kieron and James joint second, and David bringing up the rear. In the second game, Kieron took first place, followed by David, James and then Stuart. Definitely a game to play regularly when we have only four players.
The cunning (and new to us) game mechanism is that these characters are acquired through bidding with IOU chits, and the IOUs are cashed in when triggered at later points in the game. There is also the possibility of retrieving IOUs, including those belonging to other players, which one can then use to bid again - but the IOU still has to be settled by the original player.
We felt this was a great Rivals game. Nice concept, neat mechanisms, good balance of skill and luck, and plenty of opportunities for interaction and laughter. Plus it can be played in hour.
Stuart won the first game, with Kieron and James joint second, and David bringing up the rear. In the second game, Kieron took first place, followed by David, James and then Stuart. Definitely a game to play regularly when we have only four players.
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