Ticket to Ride Europe and Ra, 7 April 2010

[Orhan writes] Time this week for two short games so out came two old favourites: Ticket to Ride (Europe) and Ra. Ticket to ride was the first game of the evening and was played in the usual vaguely anarchic style with everyone apparently wanting to go through Paris simultaneously. Almost everyone pulled a small number of routes at the beginning picking up more later on. I went for my usual strategy of grabbing a large set of routes at the start of the game and made almost all of them but threw caution to the wind in the last round and had an unlucky pull dropping me down into third place only a single point ahead of Andy. The fight for the longest route was very strongly contested with all four players being within five points of each other but in the end Adrian won it which also won him the game pipping David to the post. Adrian (121), David (110), Orhan (101), Andy (100).

Ra was as usual very enjoyable with some fun brinksmanship going on between David and Adrian. Andy was Mr. Nile and unlike Kieron in another game we could mention, seemed largely impervious to the crocodiles. After his earlier victory in Ticket to Ride Adrian was feeling bullish taking a number of risks on the RA pulls but unfortunately the luck of the Gods seemed to have departed him with David winning most of their tussles. At the end of the evening the scores were David (50), Andy (47), Orhan (35) and Adrian (24).

Imperial, 31 March 2010

Nearly a full house for games this week. We didn’t expect Stu and had just got Ra out on the table when Orhan arrived which precipitated a ‘what shall we play with 6 players?’ conundrum. The answer was Imperial, and, as it turned out, this was a top choice. We had all played before except for Andy, who took to the game not so much like a duck to water as a cold-hearted international investor to the Great Power politics of the early 20th century.

The starting draw saw James with Great Britain, Orhan with Austria, Adrian with France, Kieron with Italy, Andy with Germany and Deej with Russia (I think - things did change around quite a bit…). Orhan’s Austria expanded early into the Balkans, tussling with Russia throughout the game. Britain and Germany vied for control of the low countries and Scandinavia. Italy and France jostled for position in the Med and North Africa. In terms of investing strategies, David ended up with multiple cards, having had Russia taken off him a few times. Kieron and Adrian more or less stuck to their original countries but with Kieron managing to acquire a wider portfolio than Adrian. James had a small number of high value cards. Orhan and Andy (if I remember correctly) a mid-level spread in 3 or so countries. By the end game Italy and France were out ahead with the rest of the countries a small number of power points behind and so it all hinged on the last couple of turns. In a text-book finish, Kieron managed to acquire funds and invest, and then finish the game on his next turn by taxing Italy.

The final scores were amazingly close - Andy on 94, Adrian, James and Orhan all amazingly on 105, Deej on 110 and Kieron the winner on 125. A very good game with clever mechanisms and enough interaction and lack of down time to make it a good game for six. It also finished in under 3 hours. Good stuff.

Emira - 24 March 2010

Risking the pox to visit James were David, Kieron, Stuart and Orhan this week. James retrieved Emira from the loft - a game played just once about two and a half years ago where players are sheikhs competing to attract princesses ('Emira') to their harems. Our memories (and the original write-up) were favourable but somehow this game didn't work for us tonight.

Once we'd got through the over-long rules, the game itself took ages and we eventually called a halt by setting a deadline rather than anyone meeting their victory conditions. So it was a win for Stuart with the most princesses in his harem but although we had a fun night, it wasn't really a fun game. Some of the reviews on BGG highlight the problem: you need to specialise in one attribute to be able to gain princesses and once you get the lead in an attribute it is very difficult for the other players to get the lead in that attribute (and if you've chosen the wrong attribute you're stuffed as some come up more than others). The game then comes down to pure luck as you hope for the princesses who like your attribute to be turned up first.

A nice looking game with some clever mechanisms, but ultimately not very satisfying.

Caylus - March 17th 2010

With work, visitors and illness reducing our numbers to three this week, I decided to give Caylus another outing. Kieron and I had played a couple of cracking two-player games, but it hadn't been so impressive with 4 or 5 players as it causes the action selection to become slow and difficult to manage.

So how about three players? It was pretty good in my opinion. The action selection was more difficult, as with two players taking an action between each go, it was harder to plan out a turn. The key thing was although we were kept off balance by the other actions, we weren't completely blocked - there were always options.

This was Orhan's first game and Kieron and I warned him that money is often tight throughout the game. In a spirited attempt to prove us wrong Orhan played what can only be described as a merchant's game - pulling in a great income both from favours and trading. This inevitably left him lagging behind on the prestige scale, but able to continue taking actions even when David and Kieron passed causing the action cost to rise. I went for a favour heavy approach, doing a lot of castle building and jousting. Kieron built a number of major buildings and pulled in prestige from Orhan and me for the use of his property.

In terms of favours, we all went for money at the start. Since I was getting more favours I was able to switch to the building track later in the game while the others went for prestige.

Mid-way through the game Kieron was slightly ahead of me with Orhan lagging behind. As we approached endgame, the critical buildings allowing conversion of cash to prestige and gold were built and Orhan started to pull back towards the leaders.

In the last couple of turns, we each tried to convert our residential buildings to prestige buildings to get the major score boosts they offer. Through my use of the building favour track I had an extra residential building but only had enough resources to convert one of them to a relatively average 12-pointer. This was enough to put me into the lead and in the final turn Kieron and Orhan competed for the massive 25-pointer - Kieron eventually winning it and charging back into the lead. Unable to compete I concentrated on getting more resources and triggered a final favour during the final scoring. This let me use the building track one last time to build another prestige building. I only had one gold left so was pretty limited in choice, but it was just enough to secure a victory. As usual Caylus went right down to the wire.

Final scores: David 99, Kieron 95, Orhan 80

Power Grid

6 rivals settled down for another night of Power Grid. We welcomed back the newly promoted and free at last Andy who declared that he didn't care about winning (even though the statistics show he is undefeated this decade!).
Kieron strangely elected to remove a cheap central area in favour of the expensive SW sector of the USA and promptly started in that region so he was out of the game from the start. Orhan also found it expensive to expand out as he started from the West. Meanwhile, David played his usual canny game of optimisation from a solid central position. James and Andy fought it out in the cheap eastern seaboard, but actually afte much moaning from the two of them, they had plenty of opportunities to expand their network. James manged to get an early large income by somehow having sufficient funds to power 7 cities by round 3, which catapulted him into a lead that we all found impossible to reel in. Orhan's grand plan of a late rush was scuppered by numerous texts from work and the game being finished before he had enough money to expand.
Scores on the doors James 16 powered cities (of 16), Deej 12(of 12) beating Adrian with 12(15 power potential) into 3rd by money, Kieron 11(13 power), Orhan 9(15 power), Andy 7(11 cities)

Field of Glory: Assyrians v Babylonians, 3 March 2010

Another quieter games night at Adrian's meant a further opportunity for FoG. Deej and Adrian were keen to try out the Neo-Babylonians with a Median Ally, and Orhan's Assyrians (with Stu as 2ic) had ditched the disappointing Kushite (with the emphasis on the second syllable) unprotected medium archers for yet more Cimmerian allied light horse.

The Babylonians won the initiative and chose to invade in Agricultural terrain. The battlefield was left fairly open, with some open fields in the Babylonian centre and on their right wing but most of the rest of the field more or less clear. The Median Ally option gave the Babylonians another 2 units of Superior cavalry (protected, but with Bow, not Bow* - picked specifically as an anti-chariot measure) plus some more archers with front-rank spear. This was paid for by dropping the second unit of Babylonian archers and 2 units of light foot. Having the initiative the Babylonians were able to put down chariots, heavy foot and Medians to face off the Assyrian chariots and guards, infantry occupied both centres with the Cimmerian light horse screening in front, and the Babylonian left saw the 2 superior guard cavalry units overawe some Assyrian light horse and inferior cavalry.

Battle was joined pretty much across the field. The Babylonian guard cavalry pushed forward to chase off the opposing light horse and cavalry then sweep back in to attack the various medium foot units that were trying to rally against them. In the centre Orhans combined light foot took out the one rubbishy Babylonian unprotected cavalry unit, allowing light horse to break through and begin to threaten the baggage. On the right, the Babylonian chariots and Median cavalry started to get the better of the opposing Assyrians, chasing off a unit of light foot and beginning to encircle the Assyrian left wing. As we stopped, the Assyrian elite guards were about to crash, supported by more chariots, into the Babylonian mercenary hoplites, who by now had been disrupted by the Assyrian bowfiew (so they probably would have been rolled up) - the question was, was this likely success in the centre going to be enough to stop the Babylonians winning decisively on the wings? The end scores were 2 broken units of Babylonians compared to 3 broken and 1 fragged of Assyrians.

Another good game. I think I liked the Medians, their cavalry has twice the shooting power of the Babylonians and the protected status is probably enough for this period. We kept a general with the unit of 6 superior chariots which worked well. The hoplites were fragile and really need to be screened until we can get them into combat. This configuration of Babs was good against Assyrians but how would it fare against other armies? Hope to find out soon.

The Battle of Edgehill - 27 February 2010

A return to Jonathan's to play the English Civil War battle of Edgehill.  Kieron and James were the Parliamentarians, with Jonathan, David and Steve, a colleague of Kieron's, playing the Royalists.  We arrived to find a 4' deep table running the length of Jonathan's games room, perhaps 14' long, with over 600 figures deployed in battle lines ready to fight.

The Royalists (on the right of photo) were down on numbers but with superior cavalry.  The Parliamentarians wanted to protect their flanks with cavalry but attempt to win through their number of foot.  But they were wary of the Royalist artillery on the central hill.

Too wary as it turned out given David's rolls but the plan was set. The Parliamentarians held back their foot in the centre and pushed forwards on the sides, and with their cavalry flanks.  The right flank was quickly engaged by the superior Royalist cavalry.

Here the Parliamentarians learned another lesson.  The reserve cavalry was far too close to the attacking regiments and the cavalry got hideously disrupted as they were pushed back by the Royalists.  Parliament's Horse were soon routed from the table pursued by Royalists.  The cavalry on the left flank held up a little longer but again were up against superior troops.

In the centre, the smile-shaped formation was not reflected on Kieron and James' faces.

Holding back the centre out of artillery range crammed in the Parliamentarian reserves and the advantage of numbers was not taken.  Exchange of musket fire and later close combat did take losses from both sides' foot, so we did get more up close and personal than the Battle of Newbury we played in January.

The rules (Bloody Kingdom, by the writer of Father Tilly - the ruleset used for the last ECW battle) reflect well the impact of losses on the army's morale and effectiveness, so certain dice rolls get harder to achieve as you lose more and more troops.  Consequently the early loss of the cavalry wing was a decisive factor.  By the time the Parliamentarians got their foot into combat, they were already fighting under par, and never really made much of a dent on the Royalist army, who were bolstered in turn 5 by the arrival of King Charles and reinforcements.

By the end of the eighth turn, Parliament's losses exceeded 25% and their troops were fighting at such a disadvantage, it was clear the battle was a decisive victory for the Royalists.  The table at that time shows how the Parliamentarian flanks have pretty much disappeared and the central foot is under pressure.

A fun game with superbly painted figures and great flags...

...and some lovely characters, like the Earl of Essex....

...and, my favourite, a sharpshooter balancing his aim through the hilt of his sword.

And finally, the obligatory fly-by video...