Endeavour, 8 September

Five Rivals this week at Adrian’s and we decided on Endeavour, Adrian’s Xmas present from Orhan (the one described on Boardgamegeek as ‘the perfect Euro Game’). The game seems like it should be quick to play, with only 7 turns each of 4 phases. In reality the fourth phase of each turn gets longer as the game plays through so it would probably be possible to finish in between 60 and 90 minutes. At any rate, since nobody knew (or could remember) the best strategy or tactics we all embarked on various approaches with Orhan and me opting for lots of shipping to explore unknown regions, James and Kieron going for colonizing cities and Stu going for the offensive option and waging war on the lot of us. At the end of the evening (an early end to the evening allowing us a final cup of tea and chat session) the scores were: Orhan 53; Stu 51; James 46; Kieron 44; Adrian 38. We all thought that this was a ‘good’un’ and merited further plays.

Imperial, 1 September 2010

Everyone bar Andy round at Stu’s for another outing of Imperial. This time we opted to go for the random start option - which allowed us to opt in to buying bonds in the countries in turn. This meant that we didn’t all start owning governments - James sat back for a couple of rounds aiming to anticipate which country would be worth buying in to; Deej picked up Germany as a bargain because no one was keen to particularly to own it. If I remember correctly Orhan went for Italy, Adrian for Austria, Kieron for Britain (which caused him no end of trouble with its red pieces) and Stu for Russia (or was it Deej?). The game started along fairly predictable lines - Russia and Austria having a stand-off in the Balkans, Italy and France tussling in the Med and Britain and Germany scrapping in the North Sea and Low Countries. Mid-way through the game everyone ganged up on Germany (as per usual). Stu managed to twice pull off the manoeuvre of buying out another player’s country just before they were going to tax it for the first time thereby making him substantial amounts of money. Adrian did the same to Kieron (but slightly belatedly). Countries changed hands quite a bit and the game felt much more fluid with the random start positions. As the game progressed Russia went into a commanding position and her bonds were bought out soon after. Adrian and Kieron swapped Britain and Austria and Kieron re-acquired Britain later, not before both of them had bought the majority of its bonds. As the final turns approached the game reverted to the well understood ‘Investor’ then ‘Tax’ then ‘Investor’ then ‘Tax’ approach. This meant that Kieron was able to pull off a racing through of Great Britain to finish the game. The final scores were reasonably spread out: Kieron first on 128; Adrian second on 116; Orhan third on 106; James fourth on 87; Deej fifth on 81 and Stu last on 73. There was a consensus for including the Imperial 2030 rule of adding some kind of multiplier or additional cost for racing round the roundel for countries which are higher up the power track to try to stop the accelerating spiral before the finish. One for next time.

Warhammer Ancient Battles - 28 August 2010

Jonathan introduced us to Warhammer Ancient Battles this weekend, with his and David's Pikes taking on James and Kieron's Barbarians.  We played a 1000 points per side four-turn game before lunch to get familiar with the rules, and then a big 3000 points per side all afternoon.

The ruleset has more in common with FoG than DBM (fortunately) but I felt flowed even better.  Engagements got resolved more quickly and bloodily and there were interesting effects from the characteristics of the various units and their special characters - like this Shaman here...

At the wall end of the table, David's light cavalry kept two units of cavalry occupied all game, succumbing finally in the last turn.  The barbarians on that flank had a long march into battle but did eventually get stuck in.  On the other flank, the barbarian cavalry stepped up, faltered when they realised the advantages their opponents retained even when charged, but then decided to do it anyway.  The wedge engaged the other two, did a bit of damage but was soon chased off.  The other cavalry unit went into skirmishers formation to occupy the woods, that the previous foot skirmishers had just run away from.

In the centre after some wheeling and bow fire, the barbarians and pikes did engage, as did the elephant, which made short work of the barbarian infantry - no saving roll from the effects of an elephants foot!

I enjoyed rolling handfuls of dice and like any other game, luck plays its part.  Jonathan and David would have to admit to some exceptionally good rolling for most of the game, like this example from Jonathan...

...but ultimately it was the luck of one dice roll that decided the game.  In the last turn, this pike unit failed a leadership check after losing the fight with the warband, and it then fled off the table edge.

Unfortunately for Jonathan and David, it contained the Army General and so the rest of their units on the table had to make similar morale tests, and several of them broke.  So in the last couple of minutes, the pike army snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and the win went to James and Kieron.

Ra and Villa Paletti - 25 August 2010

A splendid game of the old favourite Ra, ending with the remarkable scoreline of 50 each for Kieron and James, and 32 each for Andy and Stuart.  James sportingly recalled the Rule 23 that had come up a couple of years ago  that meant the win went to the drawing player with the highest value Sun (bidding chit) in front of him - in this case Kieron.

We then had a couple of games of Villa Paletti, recipient of a large number of game awards.  It's Jenga meets construction with strategy, and is better played than explained.  Lots of fun and tension, even for spectators like Andy who wouldn't join in and preferred to watch.  Top tip is to make sure Stuart goes after you - James won both games after Stuart brought the edifices tumbling down.

Taj Mahal - 19 August 2010

First outing for one of David's Christmas presents, Taj Mahal.  This is another Reiner Knizia game in typical Eurogame strategy style.  There are twelve turns as the players visit twelve different provinces of India.  The heart of the game is card-based bidding (poker-like) to try and be the player with the most elephants, or princesses etc, which allow the winner of each type to take the commodities or build palaces in the province.  But you only pick up one or two cards each turn, so card escalation can damage all those who engage in it.  The clever bit is that the winning doesn't happen when there is only one person left - at any time, a player can choose to stop playing additional cards and at that point, can score for any of the card types that he is currently winning on.

There are lots of different ways to score influence points and so many different strategies.  Orhan sat out the first few turns which let him pick up an extra card and his choice of two from the face up pile every go; in the rest of the game, he could then pretty much win whenever he chose because no-one else could match him in cards.  David built lots of palaces in various provinces, earning points for connecting them as his influence spread across the land.  Stuart went for a little of everything and managed to hold on to the valuable "+2 influence per turn" bonus card for most of the game.  James also tried a variety and took a good early lead, but after a card showdown with David that he lost, he never really regained his momentum.

As with other Rio Grande games, this looks stunning, and as with other Knizia games, it's very clever and fun.  Definitely one to play again.  We think different numbers of players would lead to different strategies too.  Final scores: Stuart 56, Orhan 51, David 43 and James 41.

Darkest Africa: Return to Obi Thumpi, 4 August 2010

Inspired by a 'now I'm on summer leave' conversation with Andy at James' Birthday BBQ last weekend, I couldn't resist dusting off the jungle terrain and laying on a Darkest Africa session on Wednesday for 4 Rivals plus Fred and Felix. For the game we used the very fast play 'Obi Thumpi' rules.

The set up was a terraced table, the ground rising from the river where the European forces entered, to the ruined village from where the natives emerged.

In the centre of the table was the Mission House, a new terrain piece painted up for the game, and over which the fighting raged.

As per usual in these skirmish games, the players had some victory conditions in common (killing enemies, being the first to the Mission House) but then a unique victory condition which would serve to ensure a good knockabout game.

Thus, Andy's Italians found themselves sprinting headlong for the Mission House - Andy's Hero (Major Ravioli) making it there alone only to be confronted by natives, 'tharsands of 'em' (well, over 50 in fact).

Happily for Ravioli, help was at hand - his Askaris taking up firing positions alongside Orhan's French (see second picture above), while Fred's Belgians and David's British took the right and left flanks respectively. So, James and Felix's cannibal commands swept down the hill.

Battle was rapidly joined in the centre as a lone Belgian trooper, taking up a firing position on the far right was set upon and killed by a monstrous gorilla that had broken cover. The gorilla, moving randomly and attacking any figures within 6" of his final position, did extremely well, taking out several Europeans and Natives and finally overpowering Ravioli in an epic man/ape hand to hand combat. The irony here was that the Italian scenario specific objective was to bag the gorilla - we all explained to Andy afterwards that this could have been done through rifle shooting rather than trying to take him on in fisticuffs...

As to the plot, the Mission House saw brutal hand to hand fighting all throughout the game, with Orhan's French - despite losing all their troopers to native spears and poisoned arrows - taking out James' cannibal prince with their hero and sidekick. This earned Orhan his scenario objective: holding the Mission House at the end of the game to honour the memory of his uncle, the pastor who had been eaten there by the natives the week before.

On the left flank, the thin red line of British faced off a horde of James' warriors - 2 soldiers of the 24th foot succumbed, but by the time David could move off his men towards his objective (King Oga Wana's shrine at the top of the hill, thus gaining him his objective on the last turn) a veritable pile of dead native spearmen lay scattered on the hillside.

Fred's Belgians had a bit of a rum game. Their scenario objective was to keep their troopers alive - their hopes rudely dashed by the gorilla on turn 3. So Fred then flung his men into the fight, only to turn tail and run back down the hill as Felix's main force overran them. Having lost a couple more men, Fred's leader and sidekick rejoined the fray but it was all too little too late. As for Felix, from having had zero points for most of the evening, he saw his fortune change as he charged down the hill, with the Italians (allegedly preparing to shoot at the gorilla) not opening fire on his men. This respite meant that his warriors could crash into the Belgians, bagging one of the troopers for the cooking pot - thus fulfilling his victory condition. His rampage then took in the Italians and the French, who were livid that the Italians had not supported their flank.

When the jungle dust finally settled, the French retained possession of the Mission House, the British had arrested the cannibal King, the Italians were all dead (their leader killed by a gorilla), the Belgians were still fleeing in circles from half the native warriors, with the remaining half in heaps on the field. All good clean fun. The final scores were close at the top: Felix first on 25; David and Orhan on 24 apiece; James on 19; Andy on 13; and Fred on 6.

James kindly videoed some of the action at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jq9WtAElYs

The soundtrack records the moments as Felix's natives swept away the last of the Italian Askaris...

Imperial 2030, 30 June 2010

A first play for Adrian of the modernized Imperial but a second outing of the game for James, David and Kieron. However, this time we played it properly, in particular getting the taxation and victory track points right - which meant that we actually finished the game and enjoyed it too. The initial set up saw David as Brazil and China, Adrian as India, James as Europe and Kieron as Russia. Early military build-ups and expansionism led to some spats in S E Asia and Mongolia, followed by a seemingly unopposed European expansion into Africa and an ongoing Brazilian/US war as James picked up an American ally to guard Europe’s western flank. By the mid stages of the game it appeared that Kieron’s takeover of Europe and the running down of its military power in what looked like suicidal attacks meant that he had peaked too early, but we began to reconsider as we saw that Kieron’s Europe and Russia were able to tax and boost their power ratings, unencumbered by large military forces. China shrank to a shadow of its former self. America didn’t really break out of its home territories. And meanwhile India quietly built up. Being able to launch two fleets each time into the Indian Ocean, Adrian grew a solid force in that region, expanding into Australia and S Africa. As the end game approached it was not at all clear who was in the ascendant. On the last move - Europe taxing to finish the game - it transpired that Adrian’s spread investment approach of being shrewd (or lucky) enough to have reasonable holdings in the 4 top countries and none in the bottom two secured him victory. Final scores: Adrian 103; David 95; Kieron 91; James 90