Dominion, 7 January 2009

The first Wednesday game of the New Year was at David's - Dominion, a new purchase by Adrian.  This new 2-4 player Rio Grande game is currently ranking 6th on Boardgamegeek with an 8.18 score (see http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/36218) and we found that it had some real potential.

Each player starts off with an identical deck of 10 cards (a mixture of resources and victory points) and aims, through using resources to buy new 'Action' cards and through playing these Action cards to gain other advantages and hence get more cards, to end the game with the greatest number of victory points in their deck.  The game is thus a bit like building a deck for a collectable card game in real time.  Happily, Dominion is complete as to itself - coming with 500 cards and no need for expansions ever.

The beauty of the game lies in various design concepts (not all original but still clever).  Firstly, you have to build a balanced deck so that the number of Action cards, Resource cards and Victory point cards complement each other.  Too many Action cards and you don't have enough Resource cards to buy stuff; too many Victory points early on and you don't have enough Action or Resource cards to build your deck.  Secondly, each turn (which is quick so there's no sitting around) allows you to play from a hand of only 5 cards - so you have to optimise your dek such that the combination of 5 cards that you're likely to draw from your deck each turn gives you the best possibilities for further building.   Thirdly, there are 10 types of Action card available in each game - out of a total of 25 types.  These interact with each other to allow combos of actions (or 'chaining' as it came to be known) such that you can pursue separate strategies.  The suite of 10 Action card sets also makes each game very different...

So, after that long preamble...  For the first game we played with the recommended starting set of Action cards.  Immediately various strategies were followed - Kieron as chief belligerent who developed a deck with lots of Militia (which, when played, reduce all the others' hands to 3 cards for their turn, limiting their options); Adrian who went for the Smithy and Moat approach (Moat to defend against Kieron's Militias and both Smithy and Moat allow you to burn through lots of cards in the deck, allowing rapid re-use of Resources); David who developed card chaining very early with the Village, Market and Mine combo (burns through multiple Action cards, upgrades Resources); and Stu who seemed to have no real strategy - but who nevertheless won, so clearly his strategy was just too clever and inscrutable for the rest of us...  Game 1: Stu 30; Deej 21; Adrian 19; Kieron 15.  

For Game 2 we replaced the little-used Remodel card with the Thief - which allows the burglary of others' Resources.  This addition changed the complexion of the game utterly: no one wanted to build up large Resources in their decks for fear of them being nicked.  Instead we all played to get low numbers of Victory points much more quickly - and everyone had sussed chaining by then.  Result: much shorter game.  Kieron 12; Stu 10; Adrian 9; Deej 3.

For Game 3 we changed the complexion again, taking out the best chaining card (Village) and ditching the Thief and replacing them with Library and Moneylender.  This set made long chaining much harder which led to again slightly different strategies employed.  Result: Deej 23; Adrian 17; Kieron 17; Stu 16.

So, by the end of the evening we'd learned the rules, played 3 games and encountered (only) 13 of the 25 Action card sets.  The game doesn't have the Derrening potential of greats such as Ra and Princes of Florence, but by gum its clever, pacey, and has lots of replay potential.  It would also be a great travel game, just being cards.  So, all in all, another great Rivals evening and a great game for the cupboard.

Industrial Waste - 26 November 2008

The first play of a game James bought at Birmingham's Games Expo in 2007. The original German name of this game is "Müll + Money" - or "Rubbish and Money", which isn't particularly enticing - but the environmental focus of the translation renames it Industrial Waste.

We consequently feared an overly "educational" game but this was unfounded and the game had some clever mechanisms, a fair bit of interaction, and a range of different strategies to pursue. In essence, each player is a factory owner who produces an item using a specific number of employees and raw materials. The side product is industrial waste. Research can be conducted into making the production cheaper and more efficient, or to minimise the waste. A careful balance between these options is needed. The competition is in the selection of action cards and the bidding for resources. And we learned to keep money aside to pay for the inevitable industrial accidents...

Final scores Stuart 56, David 45, James 39 and Kieron 33. The evening concluded with a nostalgic discussion of some great games we haven't played for ages. We agreed we should start the New Year with a stock take and remind ourselves properly of what's hidden away in our attics.

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.

Ra - 10 September 2008

Another couple of random but thoroughly enjoyable games of Ra at Stu's place. The first game was won by James with a huge score in the third round from his collection of monuments - final scores James 42, Stuart 38, Kieron 34 and David 24. Adrian arrived hotfoot from a parents' evening to add to the joshing and Derren-ing in the second game, securing him a massive win and James a complete reversal of fortune - Adrian 51, Stuart 40, David 38, Kieron 33 and James 21.

Shako 31 August: Assault on Gaschwitz

Finally, we got to play the much-postponed 2008 Shako outing at the end of August.  The summer hols allowed Adrian lots of time to prepare and two new units were painted up for the occasion (French and Austrian grenadiers).  The weather outside did a good approximation of October 1813 as James and Andy's French took the war to the allies with an all out assault on the village of Gaschwitz.  Congestion in the centre meant that Andy held back his large Saxon division to guard the rear.  A headlong attack by Polish light cavalry allowed the French to overrun various Prussian units and exit the board to the west - one of the French victory conditions.  The initial French division attacking the village was held up for more or less the entire game by the stalwart Prussian grenadiers holding the only fortifications that were not atomised by the French grand battery.  Happily for the French, the Polish infantry division were more successful and were pushing the village hard by the end of turn 11.  Meanwhile on the flanks, Jonathan's Austrians slugged it out with James' division guarding the village of Althen, denying the French more forces to fight in the centre.  On the left, Deej's Russians did well to support the Prussian centre, but took a hammering from Andy's cuirassiers (once he finally got them into battle...).

Who won?  Well, the Allies met their major victory condition - denying the French the control of Gaschwitz and thus the breakout.  The French however were able to hold onto their flanking lines of communication and have some of their light cavalry break out into open country.  As scenario designer (and since we only had time to play 11 of the 12 planned turns) I would call it a narrow victory to the Allies, but I expect others will comment...

Dust - 27 August 2008

The first Rivals try-out of a game Adrian plays with his boys - Dust, introduced to us as "Risks with Tricks". The backstory is a post-WW2 world where the Third Reich discovered and shared alien technology. A map of the world is marked with territories and supply centres highlighted and connected by fixed routes. There are over 800 little pieces of tanks, subs, mechs and planes - fortunately impossible to get more than a fraction of these onto the board during a game - but they are great models.


Five of us playing tonight made for lots of interaction - James getting the brunt of attacks to start with, partly due to his position in Europe but mostly to do with his early steal of supply centres on Kieron and Stu's doorsteps. The game had a neat feature with cards setting initiative, move and attack opportunities as well as providing a different special ability each turn. A fair bit of luck with dice rolling but a well-balanced and fun game. Definitely one to play again.

Kieron's return from his summer break in Central Europe led to a swift reformation of Team Balcarras and although we didn't have enough time to play through to the victory condition of 30 points, the final scores were Stuart 22, Kieron 21, James 18, with Adrian and David both on 16.

Ra - 6 August 2008

We had a strange couple of games of Ra this evening. In the first game, the initial Epoch was over in less than ten minutes as the Ra cards just kept coming, and neither David nor Stuart had bid on any tiles before the turn finished. Andy did manage to win three bids but ended up holding the three lowest bidding chits to start Epoch 2. The third Epoch was over almost as quickly as the first. Final scores were James 48, Andy 32, Stuart 28 and David (having a most un-deejous game) on just 13.

Fates turned in the second game. James started the game with the highest bidding chit but failed to actually use it until the third Epoch. Stuart built a huge number of monuments and a long River Nile, securing the much needed flood card in the last couple of turns. A virtual recount of Stuart's final score gave him the same score as David - 43 - with James on 35 and Andy on 27.

--- Rule 23 alert ---

However, a post-games night check of the rules shows that if players tie for the most fame (victory points) then the player with the highest sun (bidding chit) wins. I recall that David got the bonus +5 for having the greatest total across his three suns, so I think he may have won the game. (Standing by to be corrected...)