Over to Andy's for the four April fools and a quick return to El Capitan. It's good to get a chance to replay a game soon after the first outing as there's less rules learning and a chance to remember what worked and what didn't from the previous game.
Andy played a very loan-heavy game and started to sink under the debt mid-game. Orhan played to concentrate his influence in a small number of high paying cities, but lost out on the diversity scores and probably wasted resources intimidating others out of attempting take-overs. Kieron played a balanced game, but found a number of his warehouses vulnerable towards the endgame. I played cheaply in the first phase, raced for proliferation in the second and spent the third phase shoring up my position.
According to Kieron this is a deejious game. I don't have a clue what that means but I guess his theory is at least partially supported by the scores: David - 283, Kieron - 226, Orhan - 211, Andy - 198.
Monday, 13 April 2009
Friday, 20 March 2009
El Capitan - 18th March 2009
Deej finally had the chance to let us play his Christmas present from Kieron, El Capitan. Why did we leave it so long and why is it languishing in position 358 on Board Game Geek?
We played the basic version with 9 cities and soon realised that the loan cards are an essential part of the game after quickly spending the paltry 20 notes given to players at the start of the game before even half way through the first phase. The key point was when to decide to get a loan, how much do you get and do you pay it off early (therefore leaving yourself vunerable to coming in for a loan again and wasting a turn). Andy and Kieron came in for an early small loan and James helpfully pointed out this was daft as it cost half the value of the loan just to sail in to get it! He duly came in for a massive loan.
After pay day, we were left with the tricky decision of how much of the loan to pay back. James and Kieron opted for the safe middle ground of paying half the loan back and Deej was just canny with his spending so only had a small loan. Deej and Kieron started a race to gain 9 cities first, with Deej pipping Kieron but both cashed in on having lots of fingers in pies when the second pay day came around. Meanwhile Andy was collecting travel cards like they were going out of fashion! In the final phase of the game Andy and Deej enjoyed knocking James' early placement of warehouses out of cities to reduce his final income. At the same time Deej was his usual optimising self and came out on top. I'd like to play this again soon and see what it's like with the expansion and a 5th player. Deej 230, Kieron 218, James 172, Andy 112
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Ra, Wings of War - 11 March 2009
We introduced Orhan to the delights of Ra this evening. As always, plenty of Derren-ing going on, including from non-player Adrian who arrived later. Kieron had a storming game and accumulated a massive thirty points in the Third Epoch, giving him a huge lead. James and David battled for second place, but David's risk at the end didn't pay off and we was unable to pick up the final tiles at the end. Scores on the doors: Kieron 45, James 33, David 28, Andy 27 and Orhan 11.
We followed that with a couple of games of Wings of War - Andy, David and James the dastardly Germans, against Adrian, Kieron and Orhan the plucky Brits. The first game was a devastating and rapid three-nil loss by the English. Perhaps feeling too confident, in the second game the Red Baron conducted a personal reconnaissance mission whilst his two freunden had to engage the three British 'planes on their own. After taking an incredible eleven cards of damage (of which six were zeroes), James finally succumbed to the English bullets, and although one Sopwith was taken out, it wasn't long before all three German airplanes hit the deck.
We followed that with a couple of games of Wings of War - Andy, David and James the dastardly Germans, against Adrian, Kieron and Orhan the plucky Brits. The first game was a devastating and rapid three-nil loss by the English. Perhaps feeling too confident, in the second game the Red Baron conducted a personal reconnaissance mission whilst his two freunden had to engage the three British 'planes on their own. After taking an incredible eleven cards of damage (of which six were zeroes), James finally succumbed to the English bullets, and although one Sopwith was taken out, it wasn't long before all three German airplanes hit the deck.
Thursday, 5 March 2009
Field of Glory - 4 March 2009
My first game of the DBM replacement ruleset Field of Glory, partnering Andy with the starter Alexander army against Adrian and Kieron with the starter Seleucids.
Whilst the rulebook is much prettier and better laid out than the DBM rules, its ancestry is clear and I was worried that although many of the improvements are self-evident, it might still be a bit of a grind to play. So I was really surprised that with the combination of Adrian's coaching and the handy reference sheet, the game was much simpler than I expected and even though we were learning, seemed to run quite smoothly and swiftly.
It was certainly more fun than DBM, none of the gamey measurement and angles to worry about, and more like Shako in the sense of just commanding your battle groups to do what you wanted. And what a relief to have no PIPs to agonise over distributing.
The game resulted in a minor victory for Adrian and Kieron. They sacked our camp, destroyed two of our battlegroups, and fragmented one more, earning 7 points, against our 3 points for destroying one BG and fragmenting one.
Whilst the rulebook is much prettier and better laid out than the DBM rules, its ancestry is clear and I was worried that although many of the improvements are self-evident, it might still be a bit of a grind to play. So I was really surprised that with the combination of Adrian's coaching and the handy reference sheet, the game was much simpler than I expected and even though we were learning, seemed to run quite smoothly and swiftly.
It was certainly more fun than DBM, none of the gamey measurement and angles to worry about, and more like Shako in the sense of just commanding your battle groups to do what you wanted. And what a relief to have no PIPs to agonise over distributing.
The game resulted in a minor victory for Adrian and Kieron. They sacked our camp, destroyed two of our battlegroups, and fragmented one more, earning 7 points, against our 3 points for destroying one BG and fragmenting one.
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Citadels - 25 February 2009
Time to wheel out a rivals old-timer - no not Orhan, Citadels. With numbers up to six this evening the choice of games was pretty limited, but I found this one lurking at the back of the games cupboard. Last time we all played it, Kieron enjoyed it so much that he bought his own copy only to leave it in another country.
The game played slowly with six, the card selection phase taking long enough that there were plenty of opportunities to catch up on news. For the first few turns, Kieron felt a little picked on as he fell victim to the assassin and the thief.
As the game progressed, Orhan kept churning cards with the magician, but never quite seemed to find the right ones, Andy kept playing the king, but stayed out of trouble as no-one thought he'd be stupid enough to play it again. Kieron went after the merchant and assassinated anyone who dared take it off him. Through use of the magician and the architect I was able to quickly get out the five different colours needed for the bonus and then played out the last few to finish the game for the bonus and a win.
Final scores, David 35, James 29, Adrian 28, Orhan 24, Andy and Kieron both on 22.
The game played slowly with six, the card selection phase taking long enough that there were plenty of opportunities to catch up on news. For the first few turns, Kieron felt a little picked on as he fell victim to the assassin and the thief.
As the game progressed, Orhan kept churning cards with the magician, but never quite seemed to find the right ones, Andy kept playing the king, but stayed out of trouble as no-one thought he'd be stupid enough to play it again. Kieron went after the merchant and assassinated anyone who dared take it off him. Through use of the magician and the architect I was able to quickly get out the five different colours needed for the bonus and then played out the last few to finish the game for the bonus and a win.
Final scores, David 35, James 29, Adrian 28, Orhan 24, Andy and Kieron both on 22.
Friday, 13 February 2009
Indian Attack - 12 February 2009
A huge game of Cowboys and Indians with the Legends of the Old West ruleset using practically every Wild West accessory James could pull together - extra Whitewash City buildings, Redoubt Enterprises trainset, new fencing and lots of figures.
The Indian tribe left their reservation at the edge of town in order to liberate the Chief's daughter from the den of iniquity that is the Grand Hotel.
Kieron's Indians crept up on the kindly old stagecoach drivers and spent half the game wrestling with them, eventually gaining two scalps for the loss of one Brave.
Andy's Lawmen took action as soon as the Indians entered the town but the property owners took up positions around their properties and the miners headed off for the Grand Hotel. The Lawmen were rather exposed out on their own and the Indians started wiping them out.
Soon, all the figures were involved in the firefight but the Cowboys took the most losses, giving the game to the Indians. A good fun game but we discussed changing the way the Move-Shoot-Close Combat order of play worked, so that each group of figures could move and then shoot, rather than alternating.
The Indian tribe left their reservation at the edge of town in order to liberate the Chief's daughter from the den of iniquity that is the Grand Hotel.
Kieron's Indians crept up on the kindly old stagecoach drivers and spent half the game wrestling with them, eventually gaining two scalps for the loss of one Brave.
Andy's Lawmen took action as soon as the Indians entered the town but the property owners took up positions around their properties and the miners headed off for the Grand Hotel. The Lawmen were rather exposed out on their own and the Indians started wiping them out.
Soon, all the figures were involved in the firefight but the Cowboys took the most losses, giving the game to the Indians. A good fun game but we discussed changing the way the Move-Shoot-Close Combat order of play worked, so that each group of figures could move and then shoot, rather than alternating.
Thursday, 5 February 2009
Hamburgum, Gnadenlos - 5 February 2009
The first outing of James' games from Kieron this Christmas - Hamburgum. Players produce beer, sugar and cloth and sell these goods with their ships overseas. They compete over the best sites for their buildings and the best berths for their ships in the harbour. These activities generate money which is used to make church donations which bring the prestige points which win you the game.
A beautifully produced game with quality pieces and cards - even little working bells that are required to complete the building of each church. The rules, cards and even the board have both German and English sides (to get used to the game, we played the fully English-marked reverse side, Londinium). A range of nice mechanisms - goods whose value declines as production increases, ships whose ability to take goods decrease as they age, and the rondel from Antike is used to select actions each turn (since Hamburgum and Antike were designed by the same person).
The game doesn't have huge amounts of player interaction (no real Derren-ing opportunities) but players do compete for cards and locations, and most importantly for completing the construction of churches. And amazingly we even finished the game in the 75-90 minutes it suggested on the box!
Final scores were Stuart 89, David 66, James 55 and Kieron 51, although we had all missed a rule that limited the purchase of a particular type of building to one per turn, so Stuart's impressive lead was probably just a healthy one, but still a good win to Stu with his uncanny knack of gripping how to win games the first time we play them. We agreed to play this again soon-ish with the variant that introduces a wider range of citizen cards.
With the game finished by 10.30 and the forecast snow yet to start falling, the cowboy game Gnadenlos made another appearance. Such a clever little game. With Kieron getting the only bankrupt marker in the last Pay Day of the game, the final order was David, James, Stu and Kieron.
A beautifully produced game with quality pieces and cards - even little working bells that are required to complete the building of each church. The rules, cards and even the board have both German and English sides (to get used to the game, we played the fully English-marked reverse side, Londinium). A range of nice mechanisms - goods whose value declines as production increases, ships whose ability to take goods decrease as they age, and the rondel from Antike is used to select actions each turn (since Hamburgum and Antike were designed by the same person).
The game doesn't have huge amounts of player interaction (no real Derren-ing opportunities) but players do compete for cards and locations, and most importantly for completing the construction of churches. And amazingly we even finished the game in the 75-90 minutes it suggested on the box!
Final scores were Stuart 89, David 66, James 55 and Kieron 51, although we had all missed a rule that limited the purchase of a particular type of building to one per turn, so Stuart's impressive lead was probably just a healthy one, but still a good win to Stu with his uncanny knack of gripping how to win games the first time we play them. We agreed to play this again soon-ish with the variant that introduces a wider range of citizen cards.
With the game finished by 10.30 and the forecast snow yet to start falling, the cowboy game Gnadenlos made another appearance. Such a clever little game. With Kieron getting the only bankrupt marker in the last Pay Day of the game, the final order was David, James, Stu and Kieron.
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