Lifeboats, Really Nasty Motor Racing Game - 21 January 2009

A full turn-out (if perhaps an unexpected one) for games at Stuart's this week. Kieron introduced the first new game, Lifeboats, also known as 'Rette Sich Wer Kann' ('Each Man for Himself') which gives a better indication of what's in store.

The players each have two officers and four sailors on a ship that is going down. There are a set of lifeboats with limited spaces and islands in the distance. Each turn, the players vote for which boat springs another leak, which moves towards the islands, and then each can hop a sailor between boats. As the boats start taking in water, the occupants throw each other out to stop the boat sinking!

The voting is clever. Following negotiations (which we kept pretty short), each player places a card face down that either represents a colour or a Captain. The colour with the most votes gets the result of the particular phase e.g. white boat moves forward, yellow sailor thrown overboard. The Captain is the trump card but if more than one are played, they have no effect and are lost - and each player only has three to last the whole game.

This isn't the kind of game where thinking about your strategy is much use. Played fast and frantic, it's just supposed to be a fun game.

The second game we played was David's Christmas present to James - the Really Nasty Motor Racing Game. And so it was disappointing for both of them, that it didn't live up to the high production values and good reputation of the Really Nasty Horse Racing Game. You couldn't really balance your own risk and reward, and once the Really Nasty cards ran out, it was a simple kids game of "throw dice, move counter". Sadly, this became one of the very few (only?) games that we have abandoned halfway through.

Askari, 15 January 2009

The first 28mm skirmish game for 2009 featuring a brand new prototype set of rules by Adrian and Fred.  The scenario saw a column of Brits with their plunder trying to abscond from the lost city (starting position immediately above), but pursued by hordes of angry natives and their Arab slaver allies.  Kieron played the Thin Red Line of British foot, James the British Naval Brigade, David the Ngoni tribesmen and Andy the Fiendish Arabs.

At the first sign of danger (2 of James' matelots being gunned down by the Arabs from the cover of the jungle) the Brits abandoned the column to seek out and occupy strong defensive positions in the ruined buildings.  The Naval Brigade was beset by the Arabs on the column's left flank, having some success in holding off the musketmen and killing a couple, but eventually succumbing to an Arab assault to the rear of the position.  On the right flank, the Ngoni mounted a spirited charge, their first wave falling almost to a man in the killing zone between the remaining three British squads, but the second wave pushing on.  By the time we called a halt, the natives had pushed the Brits back and had killed around half of the soldiers, in return for about half their number killed.  The bearers with the plunder (and the Expedition's Sponsor Sir Cuthbert Bertangle and his larvely new wife Lady Fanny) escaped - but probably more due to the Umpire miscalculating move distances than tactical genius from the British players.  But no matter, it was fun.

As for the rules, they worked very well for a first go.  The concepts owe a fair amount of inspiration to Dominion, but for a game without dice it worked nicely and will be almost certainly better for next time.

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...