Only 4 rivals tonight but this gave James the chance to "show and tell" his two new games. He was itching for us to play Ice Flow so we did! Players must hop from ice sheet to ice sheet picking up rope and fish to help them on their journey from USA to Russia. We decided to ignore rule 23 this week and allow players to move any ice sheets rather than neutral or player controlled ones. This lead to much hilarity as Stuart was shunted back and Kieron just moaned about not getting the game. It was fairly level until the fish ran out and somehow Stuart and James managed to work their way into winning positions. Then the move of the evening from James as he pushed a polar bear on to Stuart's ice sheet allowing him a free move to win the game. DOH!
We then had an hour to kill so Kieron brought down an old favourite, New England. This game is always nip and tuck. Deej managed to secure plenty of land and Stuart went all out to constrain James as much as possible. Kieron kept forgetting to use his ship bonus which nearly left him missing the opportunity to cash in one of the tasty red 10 cards. Stuart and James fought over the 'most men' bonus and as the last card was drawn, the final scores read James 34, Stuart 33, Kieron 31 and Deej 30.
Ice Flow......OK if played quickly for no more than an hour.
New England......good fun (who says it has too much luck?)
Showing posts with label New England. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New England. Show all posts
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
New England - 25 June 2008
Rivals were thin on the ground this evening, with David and Adrian otherwise engaged, and Andy having a senior moment over the day of the week, but happily Kieron and James were joined by returning long-lost gamer Stuart.
The New England board was set up and narrowly escaped a Smith-made flood of Badger's Poacher's Choice (the mouthful I had first was lovely ;-). After a quick review of the rules, we got stuck into what turned out to be an extremely close game.
The last few rounds were characterised by players taking the expensive 10 marker in order to guarantee they selected tiles and cards first. Having enough money to do this a couple of times, James was able to take the tile that would otherwise have enabled Stuart to win the game well ahead by building his stored red square card for 10 points. As it was, the final scores were James 30, Stuart 29 and Kieron 27. A perfect Rivals game: not complicated but complex in its options, plenty of opportunities to thwart others, and looks really nice.
The New England board was set up and narrowly escaped a Smith-made flood of Badger's Poacher's Choice (the mouthful I had first was lovely ;-). After a quick review of the rules, we got stuck into what turned out to be an extremely close game.
The last few rounds were characterised by players taking the expensive 10 marker in order to guarantee they selected tiles and cards first. Having enough money to do this a couple of times, James was able to take the tile that would otherwise have enabled Stuart to win the game well ahead by building his stored red square card for 10 points. As it was, the final scores were James 30, Stuart 29 and Kieron 27. A perfect Rivals game: not complicated but complex in its options, plenty of opportunities to thwart others, and looks really nice.
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
Razzia & New England - 2 April 2008
First play of Reiner Knizia's Razzia, bought for David by James for Christmas. BoardGameGeek describes it as "similar to Ra". I'd say "similar" is an understatement. Razzia came out in 2005, six years after Ra but it's effectively the same game but with an Italian Mafia theme rather than Ancient Egyptian - every element in Ra has a corresponding one in Razzia. Indeed the Ra write-up on BGG describes Razzia as a "reimplementation"
The advantages might be that this is more portable (no board or victory chits) and a variation in the theme, but the disadvantage is that it has one element of Ra's complexity removed, namely that there are no "negative" tiles equivalent to drought or destruction. I'd also say the Egyptian theme is more engaging and the shortness of the turns (7 "Ra" cards have to be turned up to stop the round rather than 9) also counts against it.
Given the choice, we'd be playing Ra instead and so expect Razzia to be on eBay or a Bring & Buy stall sometime soon! Final scores were very spread out (unusually for a Rivals game) with David on 33, James 22, Kieron 14 and Andy 3.
Next we brought back out New England which we played last week. James tried a completely different and unsuccessful tactic of collecting men, ships and barns and failed to realise many points from converting his land. The other guys took more balanced approaches and their scores were extremely close, with the garland going to our host Andy (whose only other win recorded on the blog is Emira last September, so perhaps this represents a change in fortune). Final scores were Andy on 34, Kieron 32, David 31 and James languishing on 18.
The advantages might be that this is more portable (no board or victory chits) and a variation in the theme, but the disadvantage is that it has one element of Ra's complexity removed, namely that there are no "negative" tiles equivalent to drought or destruction. I'd also say the Egyptian theme is more engaging and the shortness of the turns (7 "Ra" cards have to be turned up to stop the round rather than 9) also counts against it.
Given the choice, we'd be playing Ra instead and so expect Razzia to be on eBay or a Bring & Buy stall sometime soon! Final scores were very spread out (unusually for a Rivals game) with David on 33, James 22, Kieron 14 and Andy 3.
Next we brought back out New England which we played last week. James tried a completely different and unsuccessful tactic of collecting men, ships and barns and failed to realise many points from converting his land. The other guys took more balanced approaches and their scores were extremely close, with the garland going to our host Andy (whose only other win recorded on the blog is Emira last September, so perhaps this represents a change in fortune). Final scores were Andy on 34, Kieron 32, David 31 and James languishing on 18.
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
New England - 25 March 2008
A replay (for some) of one of Kieron's bargains from last year's Games Expo in Birmingham. New England sees the players as settlers in America grabbing land and developing it for victory points. A nice bidding mechanism for turn order and limited amounts of money keeps the decision-making really important as players try to make the best value purchases of the land and development cards that get turned up. Additional victory points are available from using the land to support pilgrims, barns or ships rather than developments.
Initially a bit confusing (possibly connected with Kieron's insistence on explaining the game from memory rather than the rules ;-) this game worked well and proved to be pretty close in the final scoring with James on 32, David 31, Kieron 29 and Andy 22.
Initially a bit confusing (possibly connected with Kieron's insistence on explaining the game from memory rather than the rules ;-) this game worked well and proved to be pretty close in the final scoring with James on 32, David 31, Kieron 29 and Andy 22.
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