30th Anniversary Rivals Weekend

Somehow three decades have past since the formation of Rivals games nights.  Last weekend we got together to mark this and play a load of games.  Sadly Adrian couldn't make it, he was much missed.

We played a range of games, figures and board, old favourites and new.  We started with a "Bearers' Steeplechase" - a simple race game James had been planning for a while with some of the figures he had been collecting:

The figures were (from left to right, starting with the back row) Captain Scott on his Husky Sled, Lady Tsukiyama in a Palanquin, Sir Henry Pottinger in a Sedan Chair, Wilfred Owen on a WW1 Stretcher, Chief El Dorado the Muisca Chief, and Mrs Mavis Pike on her bicycle.

After looking for suitable rules for some time, James came across a game called Stage Chaser in a charity shop, a card based game simulating cycle races, with counters and tiles.  The tiles were reproduced as strips the figures could be placed along side.  The game uses three colours of poker chips to represent the energy a player has for attacking uphill, downhill and on the flat.  

Unfortunately this energy is depleted not by effort but by other players landing on your space and nicking your tokens.  This was quite fun but makes it tough to catch up, particularly if your hand of cards doesn't help your current position.  A good little filler game but if we play again, we'll use David's suggestions of allowing players the option of missing a turn in order to discard and replenish their hand in full.

The second game was a Dad's Army scenario - full write in this blog post.

Alternating with games of old favourites Ra and Pelopennes (and a picnic-style lunch and pizzas for dinner), we also had a couple of games of Hare and Tortoise that James had bought specially having recently discovered it was the first Spiel des Jahres winner back in 1979.  It was actually first published in 1974 but the German edition came out in 1978.

This 2010 edition from Gibson Games comes in an uninspiring box with an almost Victorian style board, suggesting a game of ludo-like simplicity.  But it's much more complex and devious than that - a race game that doesn't use any dice and (unless you take a chance card) has little luck element at all.  Suggested for ages 7 and up, we could imagine some very unhappy families trying to play this together - no doubt the reason there are so many copies under a tenner on eBay.

Each player starts with 65 carrots and 3 cabbages.  You move by paying carrots in triangle numbers for the number of spaces i.e. 1, 3, 6, 10, 15 etc carrots for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc spaces, and have to visit limited and busy locations to drop off your cabbages.  The added challenge is passing the finishing line with 10 or less carrots (or 20 or less if in 2nd place, etc).  You can collect a lot more carrots by going backwards and taking a tortoise approach, resulting in some large moves e.g. 20 spaces costing 210 carrots!

We really enjoyed it and played it twice.  The first game especially had much hilarity as we struggled to get over the finishing line with the right number of carrots remaining.

We next played the bidding game Medici followed by a 6 Nimmt, a Board Game Arena favourite from the COVID lockdowns.

After David left, we had a game of St Petersburg with James' new copy recently acquired from a Board Game Geek seller for a reasonable price.  This rare but excellent game attracts some very high prices on most selling sites.

In the morning, we had a hearty full English breakfast before a very close game of Airlines Europe.

A great weekend, missing only Adrian, in both senses of the word.  Our last games weekend was just before the first COVID lockdown, so over three and a half years ago now.  We felt we should try and do this more often!

Clank! & Medici - 24 April 2019

Back to the dungeon for original Clank!  With his very noisy robot causing lots of clank, James made a quick smash-and-grab and an early (low-scoring) exit.  David wasn't far behind.  Stuart and Andy made it above ground with Stuart collecting enough money and gems to more than make up for not securing the bonus 20 points for exiting.  Final scores: Stuart 87, David 73, James 68 and Andy 55.

Then we dusted off an old classic from Reiner Knizia, Medici.  Andy usually wins this (with luck and his Derren bidding skills) and managed to continue his run of winning a game each week.  Final scores: Andy 125, David and James 117, Stuart 57.

Peloponnes & Medici - 5 September 2018

Two incredibly close games this evening.  The first was Peloponnes where, unusually, none of the disasters or final feeds had a really devastating effect on anyone.  David won with 29 prestige and 30 population, then Andy with 33 and 28, and finally James with 35 and 27.

We next played Medici - the old Spiel des Jahres winner from Reiner Knizia with a great bidding mechanism and opportunities for brinkmanship.  We haven't played this for almost two years but it's a cracking game.  Final scores were James 142, Andy 140 and David 139.

Peloponnes & Medici - 15 November 2014

Following the Dads' Army game we had a five-player game of Peloponnes, which David triumphed even more spectacularly than last Wednesday, winning with 36 population and 34 prestige points.  James just beat Kieron into second place 24/31 vs Kieron's 24/25.  Stuart got 16/31 and Andy 15/14.

After some pretty fiery (but tasty) curries at one of the local curry houses, we returned back to mine for a six-player game of Medici.  Plenty of opportunities for Derren-ing, and Kieron won with 116 points, followed by both Adrian and David on 105, James on 88, Andy on 74 and Stuart on 66.

A great afternoon and evening, combining a figures game, board games and a social.  Looking forward to part 2 in a few weeks.

Peloponnes & Medici - 9 October 2013

Almost a full house tonight, so an opportunity to play a couple of our favourite six player games - Peloponnes and Medici.

We had two early catastrophes which saw James lose his two buildings in about the third round, leaving him with nothing but a couple of sea tiles, but managed to recover somewhat later on.  Andy also lost a couple of buildings during the game when he was short of the building materials required when his mortgages were cashed in.  Kieron successfully (and perhaps a first for anyone?) managed to build in every round but fell foul of the final feeding where all but one of his population were wiped out.  Orhan and David both played perfectly balanced games and achieved good scores, but with lots of prestige tiles and a last round build of tile that meant his population were worth 4x rather than 3x, Stuart took a clear first place.  Final scores (prestige/population) were: Stuart 38/40, David 33/33, Orhan 24/24, James 20/21, Andy 17/18 and Kieron 32/3.

We then played a quick (60 minutes) game of Medici - another very clever Knizia creation.  The scores were wide-ranging this time, with Kieron not having one of his better evenings, ending up with slightly fewer points than the initial position.  Final scores: James 133, David 97, Orhan 79, Andy 76, Stuart 43, Kieron 22.

Medici & Bang - 17 March 2011

Six of us again tonight so another outing for Reiner Knizia's Medici - winner of Spiel des Jahres in 1995.  As always with bidding games, lots of fun to be had with the Derren-ing and the judgement of whether better cards would turn up later.  In the first round, Adrian failed to secure any cards, saving money and still leaving him ahead of other players but failing to establish any footholds up the pyramids for the second and third rounds.  Kieron, David and Orhan had strong hands each round but Andy's previous natural strength at this game didn't come through tonight.  James started off with an expensive first round and was trailing until the third round when he managed to win a set of cards including the neutral 10 and extra metals to give him the monopoly bonus.  Together these meant he managed to better Kieron's description of "coming from behind to storm into fifth place" to end up just one point behind Kieron's winning position.  Final scores Kieron 80, James 79, David 74, Orhan 70, Andy 65 and Adrian 64.

Hoping for third time lucky, James brought out Bang! again with the desperate wish of lasting longer than one turn.  Drawing the Sheriff meant that at least there were two other players who didn't want to see him dead - at least not straight away.  A slow start as most players equipped themselves with weapons but then Orhan and Andy revealed their true colours by shooting at James.  James managed to kill off Orhan but then Deputy Kieron blew himself up with his own dynamite.  David then softened up James for Andy to finish him off.  A fun short game.

Medici - 2 September 2009

A gang of 6 descended upon K's house this week for a catch up after a summer of holidaying (well for some of us!). Luckily, James had predicted the large turnout and had brought another favourite, Medici. Unluckily for the rest of us, Andy was playing so the evening's result was written in the stars. Everyone else went for the sensible option of opting for perhaps two strong strands whilst keeping an eye on the big points available at the end of each round. Andy went for his tactic of bidding on seemingly odd combinations and won. I must avoid saying here that it must have been luck as Andy seems to know something about this game that the rest of us don't! The blog has only recorded 2 other games of Medici, both won by Adrian. Surely this can't be true?
Final points: Andy 80, Adrian 78, Orhan 68, Kieron 63, David 58, James 57 (yes 6th place for James)

Ticket To Ride - 22 December 2007

In what may possibly be the last games night of the year, we gathered with guest gamer Russell to try James' Christmas present from Adrian - Ticket To Ride. This is a card collecting game where sets of cards allow you to place railway carriages to connect towns (and earn points) on a map of North America. Points are also earned by connecting pairs of towns indicated on secret Destination Tickets held by each player, and by owning the longest continuous path of routes.

Players tried different tactics - trying to connect their Destinations first, or accruing points early by building the longest routes - but the scores were pretty close. James just managed to add to his track in the last couple of turns to get the same length route as Adrian, preventing the 10 point bonus taking Adrian past him. So the final scores were James (Red) 112, Adrian (Blue) 105, Kieron (Yellow) 94, Andy (Green) 82 and Russell (Black) 68 - unusually not winning this visit.


There was some discussion about whether the "longest continuous path of routes" meant the most trains of one colour which were connected, or the longest path traced by those trains without branching. Posts on the Board Game Geek forum here and here say the latter, so that's what we'll play. It didn't affect the final player order in this game, but would have brought Andy's score to just a scrape behind Kieron.

Since it wasn't a school night, we brought Medici back out for another outing. Adrian was alone in remembering exactly how he'd creamed us last time we played this, and so he thrashed us again. Adrian 129, Russell 100, James 98, Kieron 96 and Andy 65.

A fun games night punctuated by hacking coughs from most of the participants.

Medici - 31 October 2007

Another game bought at Colours earlier this year, Medici is another cracking game from Reiner Knizia. Players are medieval merchants bidding on a range of commodities. Points are accrued by collecting the most of a particular commodity with extra points for getting the maximum number. Quite simple to understand but with the usual complexities involved in a bidding game. Adrian came out top in both games - the scores on the doors were Adrian 95 Andy 84 Kieron 80 David 75 James 61, and then Adrian 117 David 102 James 91 Andy 90 Kieron 77