Show and Tell 10 November: 15mm Later Polish

I thought I’d start up a thread as a virtual Show and Tell of figures completed (not least to showcase the products of the pact between me and Andy to paint up the armies from Agincourt over the course of the next year). In the meantime, these are the first 3 elements of mounted crossbowmen needed to convert my Later Polish DBM army into a Field of Glory army. The FoG Knight battle groups for the Later Polish consist of a front rank of Knights and a rear rank of mounted crossbowmen (their retainers) allowing the BG to shoot. Not sure how effective these will be but I thought I’d have a go and paint them up. So these are the first three elements - I plan to do 9 in total to provide 3 BGs. The figures are Essex; the flags are handpainted; the heraldry of the whole army represents the Polish force at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1410. The pictures show the crossbowmen on their own and as the rear rank of their Battlegroup - led by Jakob of Koniecpol (Horseshoe flag), Sedziwog of Ostrorog (Loop of rope flag) and Jan Mezyk of Dabrowa (Fish flag).

FoG, 27 October - Babylonian v Early Nomad

Half-term games and numbers were down so we went for a FoG session at Adrian’s with the host and Orhan taking the Babylonians into battle against Kieron and David with Kieron’s Early Nomads. This was the experimental camel approach seeing whether unprotected average camel with bow were a match for the Babylonian chariots and heavy cavalry. In short they weren’t. the armies lined up broadly with mounted wings on the Babylonian left and Nomad right. The centre and opposite wings had mostly light and medium foot. The clash of the mounted happened early, the Babylonians cutting and shooting their way through the camels like the proverbial knife through butter. “No matter”, said Kieron, “I have a lot of butter”. But despite this quantity it was not enough to stop a pummeling on the left. In the centre and right things were a little more balanced with some light foot losses to the Babylonians, but by finishing time it was a fairly conclusive 15 points to 5 in favour of the Babylonians.

Fagin's Gang, Gold Diggers - 3 November 2010

Finally, the first outing for Fagin's Gang, a game James bought back at the Birmingham Games Expo last June.  This is sold as a 'euro-style' strategic trading and commodity-collecting game for 2-6 players. In reality, it's a complicated version of Ludo.  Each player has five urchins that move around six areas of London, stealing goods and money.  The goods are required for the movement of the urchins, and the money is required (15 a time) for an urchin to leave the board and take it back to Fagin.  The first to have three urchins leave is the winner.


It's hard to dislike this game.  The mechanisms worked, it's got an interesting setting, it played in 2 hours with four of us.  But it's hard to get really excited about it too.  Perhaps it's just too mechanistic, certainly when someone is a few turns away from winning, there's little anyone can do about it, and the wandering constables (which "bump" the urchins up and down the goods tracks) mean that following a strategy can be more a matter of luck.


So a reasonable game, but given the competition it has from the contents of the various Rivals games cupboards, I don't think we'll see this one again.  The final outcome was quite close - towards the end James, Kieron and Adrian all had two urchins free, with a third just a handful of steps from leaving, and Andy, although still having all his urchins on the board, had three within a couple of steps each from leaving.  So was all about who could collect the right goods fast enough, and James had the luck this time.


With an early finish, we got out Gold Diggers - fast becoming a favourite short game.  We had three hands - all pretty close in the first two but Adrian really pulled ahead in the third round, getting a sole share on one mine worth double figures.  Final scores Adrian 41, Kieron 30, Andy 29, James 26.

Power Grid: Factory Manager - 20 October 2010

Kieron and I had both tried Power Grid: Factory Manager as a 2-player game and not been impressed. However there are quite a few games that play very differently with 2, so we decided to try with 5.

The first thing you notice is that despite the name, this game has nothing to do with Rivals' favourite Power Grid. Then the setup takes absolutely ages as you sort and place dozens of tiles in piles on the main playing grid. Not the greatest of first impressions...

However, although I think we all felt a bit lost in the variety of choices early on, the game settled down and proved to be pretty enjoyable. There are some interesting decisions to make: Go early for greater choice, or play later for discounts. There's also the tactic of restricting other players access to pallets - used by Adrian to great effect in one round.

Worth playing again, but not a classic.

End result: Adrian and Kieron tie on 266 (Adrian wins the tie breaker). David on 242, Andy on 190, James on 183 (but he claimed he added his score up wrong...)

Gold Digger twice, 13 October

We had initially intended to play Dominion after Ra, but Adrian couldn’t find it quickly so we dug out a second Reiner Knizia game, Gold Diggers. Carol had originally bought this as a stocking filler for the boys but it is a real gem. Players either allocate value cards to mines or lay claims on those mines, but the beauty is that all 60 cards must be played and it’s a fine balance between committing too early or missing a chance for high points. Lots of luck involved but somehow it feels like there’s more skill involved. We played 2 games, the first of 3 rounds, the second of 2. Scores: Stu 26, Adrian, Orhan and Andy 25, James 22; and then Andy and James joint first on 21, Stu 13, Orhan 11, Adrian 10. A great game.

Ra, 13 October

Five Rivals at Adrian’s this week for a triple games session. Ra was first off the blocks with a thoroughly professional yet light-hearted showing from all players. Kieron’s ‘curse’ of the 10 and 13 tile retention was narrowly avoided by Andy. No one particularly managed to get many monuments and Stu built up and maintained a commanding lead by his use of Nile tiles. Adrian’s pharoah dominance was not enough to jolt Stu from the top slot. Scores: Stu 29, Adrian 27, Orhan 25, James 24, Andy 12.

Hamburgum 6th October

Another outing of Hamburgum, but this time with 4 players. Would the extra player make a big difference to the game play? In brief - Yes. Keiron continued with a game-plan that centred on making regular contibutions, James began to gain a healthy stack of guildhall cards which was looking very good until he was nobbled by Keiron's 'taking one for the team' action which actually meant Stuart did it! Andy amassed loads of cash and materials. However, he only realised late in the game that an important part of the game was to make contributions to the cathedrals. One of many key points that James failed to mention when reading the rules to Andy I am told - next time we will get Keiron to read them! Stuart spotted a previously unused approach involving buying lots of ships and cashing in ship cards. This tactic initially looked to have backfired when James revealed another rule (yes another) about the maximum number of ships a player could have. The game was noticeable for the number of times James commented that he had made a mistake and how it had ensured his 4th place.

In the final shake up an inspired 21 point haul from one of James' 4 cards meant that he just sneaked past Andy. Keiron was just edged out by Stuart's final reveal - another 10 pointer from a ship card.

Scores: Stuart 70 Keiron 68 James 50 Andy 48