Quacks of Quedlinburg, 22 January 2020

Naff name, great game.  That was the verdict from Wednesday's try out of Quacks of Quedlinburg at Adrian's.  A beautifully produced game involving potion creation via ingredients drawn, a la Ra, from one's own personal ingredient bag.  Pull too many of the wrong ingredients (which alas are compulsorily included at the outset) and your potion blows up.  Too few of the right ingredients and your potion isn't worth very much in terms of victory points or cash to buy new ingredients.  All in all it's a game of managing jeopardy and opting for menu strategies that allow different approaches to brewing up.  Or blowing up.  At any rate it was good fun and James stole the show with his effective use of Yellow stuff.  Final results James 81, Adrian 60, Stu 58, Andy 53.  Definitely worth another go.

Notre Dame & Colt Express - 8 January 2020

Another game in rat-infested Paris with worker placement and card game Notre Dame.  Andy's 4 block strategy gave him lots of double coins or rat removal but didn't generate the prestige points needed.  Stuart stayed out of Notre Dame itself, collecting plenty of prestige points from the character cards.  David, James and Andy visited Notre Dame each turn but James' extra cash enabled the larger donations, ultimately pipping Stu to first place by just two points.

We then played Colt Express with the Horses & Stagecoach expansion that David got James for Christmas.

As well as the obvious, this also adds hostages who can be ransomed (but cramp your style during the game), whisky flasks that give bonuses with the cards, and an extra strongbox defended by a shotgun-wielding character.  That sounds a lot but it all complements the original game really well, giving more variety and opportunities to shoot James.  Stuart and David got the strongboxes but a later punch-up saw Stuart take them both and climb to the roof in the last move to avoid sharing any booty.

New Year Games Bonanza - 2 January 2020

A lot of players and a lot of games for the first session of 2020.  Lucas, Kieron and James started with Byzanz, a neat little card game with bidding and collections.  In a promising sign of a good game, the final scores were really close: 32, 34 and 36 points.

Andy was then subbed in for a game of St Petersburg.  Kieron went for buildings only leaving James and Andy to collect large numbers of nobles, with James winning with a set of nine.

After Adrian and Stuart arrived, we played James' new game Flash Point: Fire Rescue.  This cooperative fire-fighting game had a great theme, looked the part and modelled the spread of fire really well.  Perhaps we were lucky with some of the rolls but we rescued the target number of victims with ease, so we didn't really experience the peril.  Next time,we'll play in heroic mode with more initial explosions and hazards to make it more of a challenge.

Next up was Ra.  The usual shenanigans.  Another win for Andy.

Lastly, Lucas, Kieron, Andy and James played 7 Wonders - yet another win for Andy.

Clank! In! Space! - 20 March 2019

With no shortage of exclamation marks, this is one of the re-implementations of the excellent deck building and board game Clank!  We played the original dungeon escape version round at Stuart's recently.  This implementation has all the same mechanisms but with a brilliant sci-fi theme with lots of jokes and copyright-avoiding illustration and names on the adventurer cards.

James and Stu managed to exit using the escape pods but David and Andy succumbed before reaching the cargo bay, and didn't score the bonus 20 for escaping so we decided to record their acquired points anyway.  Final scores: James 97, Stuart 94, David 79, Andy 76.

Clank - 21st February 2019

We met on Thursday this week and Stu turned up determined to get us to play Clank!. Andy was initially unconvinced, but was eventually persuaded to give it a go.

Borrowing shamelessly from The Hobbit, Clank has us playing the roles of adventurers sneaking into a dragon's lair to steal treasure. The odd name comes from the need to keep quiet. Making noise introduces risk that you'll be attacked when the dragon awakes. This is done in a neat mechanism - every time you make a noise you pay a cube of your colour. When the dragon wakes these cubes are put into a bag and drawn out to seen who is hurt.

Once we got the hang of it the game played well, but the main thing was how much fun it was. Although there isn't much direct interaction, there is plenty of room to "advise" your fellow thieves about a course of action, to sneak ahead and claim artefacts before them, and of course the pleasure of watching their cubes come out of the dragon bag.

The mayhem of the game resulted in a lot of death. Final scores were James 63, Stu 63, David 50, Andy 43. James won on the tie-break.

It was so much fun that I bought Clank! In! Space! the next day and have already had a fun game with the family.

Dinosaur Island, Century: Spice Road - 16 February 2019

A flying visit by Kieron and family was a great excuse for some weekend gaming and a night out.  First up was Adrian's kickstarter game Dinosaur Island, which is essentially Jurassic Park without any royalties (I feel a trick was missed here - since it would have been one of the very few TV/movie tie-in games that is actually any good!).

It has a huge number of luridly-coloured playing pieces and setting it all up plus rules explanation took a while but the game itself is straightforward enough.  Harness DNA, create dinosaurs, entice visitors to your park, and make sure not too many of them are eaten.  Lots of fun.  I especially like the different dinosaur models.  Final scores: James 59, Kieron 51, David 43, Adrian 35, Andy 27.

We then played a three-hander of the very neat Century: Spice Road and finished with a couple of games of Red7.

Great to have Kieron back for some games - we miss you!

Peloponnes & Skull & Azul - 23 January 2019

A mega-games night with five players and three games.  First off was old favourite Peloponnes.  Adrian played an interesting new strategy with no building purchases, and just three resource tiles (mostly food) and three sea tiles.  Along with the ever increasing population civilisation, his population continued to grow and although his lack of buildings impacted prestige points, the strategy got him into second place, behind James' - whose score was bolstered by the last round purchase of the "2 coins equals 1 prestige". 

There was a huge amount of money swimming around in the game, with many of us passing on purchases several times during the game.  There were a couple of unusual features with the disasters too.  Firstly, none occurred until all five were showing two of their three counters.  And secondly, no disasters occurred in the final round, as they had all already happened, with the final two counters both being blank.  Final scores (population/prestige): James 27/34, Adrian 27/24, David 21/31, Stuart 16/35 and Andy 18/12 (following a  devastating earthquake in the penultimate round).

Then a bluffing/bidding game of Skull, which David won.  Works much better with more players and is a fun end-of-evening filler.

And then finally, we managed to fit in a game of Azul after Adrian left.  This is a neat tile laying game (real wall tiles as in a mosque) with simple mechanisms but plenty to think about. 

David scored strongly from the start and we never really caught him up, despite a large negative bonus forced on him by James in the final turn.  Final scores: David 62, James 55, Stuart 51, Andy 26.

Love Island - 28 November 2018

At long last, the scenery I bought two years ago at Reading made it to the games table yesterday evening.

Coupled with a shrine on a small island connected by a bridge, the table was set for a clash between two rival buntai factions of six figures each.

Andy and Stuart's samurai arrived by a couple of newly-painted watari bune (river ferries) acquired from Oshiro Model Terrain. 

David and James' samurai prepared for action.

The buntai were quickly engaged.

First blood to David and James.

I introduced a climbing rule for the figures to clamber up and down the terrain - failure was rolling 1 on a D6.  Stuart's comedy character failed this a couple of times, ending up lying stunned and wounded at the bottom of a small cliff.

The Ronin rules and their use of attack and defence combat tokens went down very well.  Inevitably, a lot of the critical wounds were the result of attacker and defender getting extreme rolls, but there were combats that took several rounds where figures were stunned or lightly wounded, and continued the fight.  We thought though that we would modify the climbing rule to slow armoured characters and allow unarmoured figures to continue into combat.

Eventually, just two of David's and one of James' figures were the last men standing - bloodied but victorious.

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.

The Castles of Burgundy - 18 July 2018

Another outing for The Castles of Burgundy - the third this year.  David established an early and strong lead but James reeled him in and overtook in the last few turns of the game.  Final scores: James 237, David 217, Andy 161.

Phalanxx - 5 July 2018

Another outing for a more recent game from Bernd Eisenstein (of Peloponnes fame).  A good mixture of dice placement, map expansion and conflict, and card collection.  James pipped David to first place at the last stage of end game scoring.  Final scores: James 63, David 60, Andy 35.

Roll for the Galaxy - 23 May 2018

Double bill of the excellent Roll for the Galaxy.  James won the first game 44-34 with lots of developments and a bonus for having them.  David won the second game 46-37 with alien technology, in particular a combo that generated tons of money every time James went exploring!

Caylus - 16th May 2018

Another game of 2-3 player favourite Caylus for James, Stu and David.

David and Stu competed in the town for control of the most useful and productive buildings, but James dominated castle building, earning extra favours and achieved the win. As usual, despite a variety of strategies the results were surprisingly close:
James 76, Stu 73, David 67

Peloponnes & Spice Road - 7 March 2018

Four of us this week so after a bit of a catch-up, we dug out Peloponnes.  Usual fun game with the usual devastating end-game of disasters and final feeds.  David and James ended up with the same large population but James' buildings edged it.  Final scores: James population/prestige 30/27, David 30/20, Andy 18/17, Stuart 12/28.

Then we introduced Stuart to Spice Road and he promptly (well, not promptly) thrashed us.  Final scores: Stuart 68, David 50, James 47, Andy 37.

Ronin Skirmish Scenario - 14 February 2018

At long last, almost three years since I visited Japan and started developing this project, I finally got round to testing the Ronin rules with Andy.

Ronin is a short set of rules produced by Osprey.  The rulebook also contains lots of information for different Buntai (groups) and a set of scenarios.  It has the standard Initiative - Move - Combat sequence but has two important characteristics that make it different from the Warhammer skirmish games we play (Legends of the Old West, and Legends of the High Seas).

The first characteristic is that instead of a player moving all their figures before the other player, the players move one figure each alternately, so you feel more like you are playing with a set of individuals than a group.  The second characteristic is how hand-to-hand combat works.

Ronin uses a (as far as I know) unique system of combat counters.  Each figure has a rank of 1 to 5 with a corresponding number of combat counters (black and white Go counters).  During combat, characters use black counters to attack, white to defend, and further black counters to enhance initiative and attack roles.  Players select a different set of counters for each combat so there is a need to think what your opponent might do and then what risks to take with whether to enhance your rolls or not.  We had a quick one-on-one fight to test this (which pleasingly was won by the first figure I finished painting) and found it was much simpler to play than it is to describe!

Then the first proper game - a standard skirmish on a two feet square board with a bamboo grove and a couple of buildings.

We had three Samurai figures each.  I made up stats cards for each character.

The three Buntai started on opposite corners of the playing area...

...but were quickly facing up to each other...

...and then getting stuck in:

Blood was spilt and James' Buntai was victorious - earning 9 Victory Points for killing Andy's three Rank 3 Samurai.

We then tried another skirmish with a larger Buntai and some additional random minor objectives (e.g. kill the Leader, kill 75% of the enemy).  Each Buntai had a Rank 4 Samurai, two Rank 3 Samurai, two Ikko Ikki and a Ninja as a "sword for hire".

Starting from opposite edges of the playing area, the figures again quickly closed up...

...and then got stuck in:

This time Andy wiped out James' Buntai, losing half his figures the process, and so winning 18 Victory Points to 9.

It was great to finally play with these figures and a relief to find the rules are good to play.  Given the focus on individual figures rather than groups, Ronin will easily work with more players without the need to create complicated multi-Buntai scenarios.

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.

Century: Spice Road and 7 Wonders - 21 December 2017

A pre-Christmas games night saw us play the first of many Christmas gift games - Cenury: Spice Road. It's a fun game with clever mechanics as you collect and play action cards to trade spices from one type to another. When you own the right spice combinations you can claim victory point cards, so you have to pay attention to how many moves you are away from acquiring a card and whether someone else will get there first. You also have to decide whether to go quickly for cheaper cards and finish the game early or build up to the big scoring cards.

We played two rounds. In the first, no spice production cards appeared and we all made do with a small hand of cards each. In the second game we went for bigger hands of cards and a greater variety of actions as we figured out how to use them more effectively.

First game: David 66, James 62, Andy 56, Adrian 51
Second game: James 77, Andy 71, David 67, Adrian 65.

Adrian had to go home early so we finished off with a game of 7 Wonders. Exceptionally Andy didn't all out for blue buildings but had a lot of military success and bought a lot of guilds in the last round.

Final scores: Andy 67 (including 31 on guilds), James 54 and David 50.

Ra & Alea Iacta Est - 13 December 2017

A double celebration tonight - of David's achievement and Kieron's visit.  Since we had an old favourite with us again, we played an old favourite Ra, with the usual Derren-ing and hilarity over others' misfortune.  And we even let Kieron win.  Final scores: Kieron 35, Andy 34, David and James both 28, Stuart on 19.

Then a game of  Alea Iacta Est in which Stu had us in hysterics in the last turn of the game as he failed to roll a 2 ten times.  Final scores: James 47, Andy 44, David 42, Kieron 36 and Stuart 33.

And before I went to bed I got one more clue on the Christmas quiz.  I worked out what an uneducated burglar says to a policeman who has arrested him: "Let go" with a dropped "t" becomes "Lego".  I should have got that earlier ;-)

St Petersburg & Port Royal - 6 December 2017

Four of us at Andy's for games so of course we had to play St Petersburg (and eat fridge cake).  Another close game, harder to get big collections of nobles with four players, especially when you go through the buildings as quick as we did.  Final scores: James 50, Adrian 43, David 41, Andy 40.

We also played Port Royal again - I didn't make a note of the scores but I think that although I got to 12 victory points first, Adrian overtook me to reach 13 in the last round.

Peloponnes & Alea Iacta Est - 13 October 2017

Last games night before Andy heads off to Darkest Africa, so a play of a couple of trusted favourites, Peloponnes and Alea Iacta Est.  For I think the first time, we got to the verge of all five disasters before any single one occurred...

...so they came thick and fast in the second half of the game.  The final disaster of Plague was the decider as Andy and Adrian were decimated but James was protected.  Final scores: James population/prestige 30/32, Andy 24/25, Adrian 18/31.

We spotted a minor Rule 23 in Alea Iacta Est - fortuna tokens gained by players are supposed to be shown face-up.  Adrian made good use of these tokens, supported by a relevant SPQR card, and got the win, but the scores were close:  Adrian 46, James 44, Andy 40.