A good turn out tonight for another game of firm favourite Peloponnes, using the Sea, 6-player and Hellas (Fourth Round) expansion sets. A very close finish with Andy, David and Orhan all scoring 27 with the final order settled by their respective secondary scores of 33, 31 and 30. Stuart was fourth with 21, and Kieron and James both on 18 but with James in last place following a calamitous last turn which saw him lose both land and building tiles to tempest and earthquake disasters.
After Orhan left and a quick rummage in the loft (and a reminder about cunning cowboy game Gnadenlos!) we played three rounds of Gold Digger - final scores David 30, Kieron 26, Andy 25, Stuart 22 and James 16.
Thursday, 19 April 2012
Friday, 6 April 2012
Viking Fury
Jonathan set up another big figures game last weekend, playing the Saxons defending against James' and Orhan's Viking coastal attack.
The Viking longship sailed to the other end of the game board to supplement James' Western Franks mercenaries...
...with some genuine Vikings:
Meanwhile Orhan's Vikings started coming across the beach at the far end of the gaming table.
The Saxons had a strong position holding a hill in the centre...
...with other troops including crossbowmen in the woods on the flanks:
James also started with some Western Franks infantry holding a fort...
...although his bowmen fled immediately following some devastating crossbow action from the woods (Jonathan succeeding despite needing 7s on D6s - don't ask! ;-)
James' Vikings had more success, sliding up behind the fort...
...and then along the edge of the woods, where the Saxons began to retreat.
On the other flank, Orhan pressed on, wiping our skirmishers with his berserkers - which even succeeded in getting Saxon cavalry to flee, leaving the flank looking very thin.
Jonathan reinforced the other flank as a defence against James and moved troops to meet Orhan...
...having particular success with his housecarls:
With Jonathan's original central position split to fight the infantry on his flanks, James then rode his Western Franks cavalry into the centre - held up a bit by fencing...
...but eventually able to do a fair bit of damage to the Saxons including a nasty flank attacks:
The other flank was becoming a war of attrition. Both Jonathan and Orhan continued to pass every morale test as their troops continued to thin each other out - units usually flee with this much of the movement trays empty!
The Saxons and Vikings continued to wear each other down, with Orhan reimagining the Viking strategy of "Raid and Retreat" into one of "Death or Glory". They got Death. Jonathan killed Harald Hardrada in a character battle. Orhan's remaining Vikings finally returned to the beach...
In the centre, there weren't many Saxons left to face James' Vikings and Western Franks, who hadn't lost any units:
With the Saxons defeated and the Vikings returning to Norway with their tails between their legs, we decided the victory belonged to the French mercenaries.
But the strategic win must be with the English - with Harald Hardrada now dead, King Harold wouldn't have to later march to Stamford Bridge to defeat him, leaving Harold's troops fresh and ready to repel the Norman Conquest...?
The Viking longship sailed to the other end of the game board to supplement James' Western Franks mercenaries...
...with some genuine Vikings:
Meanwhile Orhan's Vikings started coming across the beach at the far end of the gaming table.
The Saxons had a strong position holding a hill in the centre...
...with other troops including crossbowmen in the woods on the flanks:
James also started with some Western Franks infantry holding a fort...
...although his bowmen fled immediately following some devastating crossbow action from the woods (Jonathan succeeding despite needing 7s on D6s - don't ask! ;-)
James' Vikings had more success, sliding up behind the fort...
...and then along the edge of the woods, where the Saxons began to retreat.
On the other flank, Orhan pressed on, wiping our skirmishers with his berserkers - which even succeeded in getting Saxon cavalry to flee, leaving the flank looking very thin.
Jonathan reinforced the other flank as a defence against James and moved troops to meet Orhan...
...having particular success with his housecarls:
With Jonathan's original central position split to fight the infantry on his flanks, James then rode his Western Franks cavalry into the centre - held up a bit by fencing...
...but eventually able to do a fair bit of damage to the Saxons including a nasty flank attacks:
The other flank was becoming a war of attrition. Both Jonathan and Orhan continued to pass every morale test as their troops continued to thin each other out - units usually flee with this much of the movement trays empty!
The Saxons and Vikings continued to wear each other down, with Orhan reimagining the Viking strategy of "Raid and Retreat" into one of "Death or Glory". They got Death. Jonathan killed Harald Hardrada in a character battle. Orhan's remaining Vikings finally returned to the beach...
In the centre, there weren't many Saxons left to face James' Vikings and Western Franks, who hadn't lost any units:
With the Saxons defeated and the Vikings returning to Norway with their tails between their legs, we decided the victory belonged to the French mercenaries.
But the strategic win must be with the English - with Harald Hardrada now dead, King Harold wouldn't have to later march to Stamford Bridge to defeat him, leaving Harold's troops fresh and ready to repel the Norman Conquest...?
Saturday, 31 March 2012
BKC on the move
After many many months of designing and woodworking, Andy presented me this week with my 40th birthday present - a spectacular bespoke box for my BKC British in North Africa army.
Unlocking the three catches and pushing back the lid reveals measuring sticks, wire mounts for the aeroplanes, dice box and dice tray...
Lifting this tray out reveals the armour tray...
Underneath the tanks is a tray with aeroplanes and transport...
Pulling out the black knob on the front left of the box allows a flap to open on the side and the rulebook can be slid out...
...followed by a quick tug on a tassle to reveal the final tray with the infantry and command bases.
A unique and very personal present - thanks Andy!
Unlocking the three catches and pushing back the lid reveals measuring sticks, wire mounts for the aeroplanes, dice box and dice tray...
Lifting this tray out reveals the armour tray...
Underneath the tanks is a tray with aeroplanes and transport...
Pulling out the black knob on the front left of the box allows a flap to open on the side and the rulebook can be slid out...
...followed by a quick tug on a tassle to reveal the final tray with the infantry and command bases.
A unique and very personal present - thanks Andy!
Friday, 30 March 2012
Tikal II and Samurai - 28 March 2012
A small but select gathering as only David, Orhan and James around for games this week. We had the second outing for Tikal II (played for the first time in February I think at Orhan's but no blog report and can't remember who won that time). The players are adventurers exploring a temple and it's another beautifully produced game notable for the Tintin-esque graphic story over several pages setting the context at the beginning of the rule book, and a box with an indexed slot for each type of game component.
Fortunately, the game lives up to these very high production values, providing a variety of strategies for the players. As the first player, James got a good lead in the first half of the game but couldn't sustain it once he became the last player in the second half. Final scores Orhan 58, David 52, James 44.
There was still time for a quick second game so played Samurai again. For me, it didn't work quite as well as the first time we played (perhaps we knew too much...?) but I'm very keen to try this with four players to see whether that balances the game better in the early moves. A good night for Orhan with the final scores reading Orhan 20, David 9, James 0.
Fortunately, the game lives up to these very high production values, providing a variety of strategies for the players. As the first player, James got a good lead in the first half of the game but couldn't sustain it once he became the last player in the second half. Final scores Orhan 58, David 52, James 44.
There was still time for a quick second game so played Samurai again. For me, it didn't work quite as well as the first time we played (perhaps we knew too much...?) but I'm very keen to try this with four players to see whether that balances the game better in the early moves. A good night for Orhan with the final scores reading Orhan 20, David 9, James 0.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Pantheon - 21 March 2012
First outing for one of David's new games - Pantheon. This is a civilization-type game with added gods. But unlike other civ games where each player is a different empire, in this game there is a random empire each turn which becomes the starting point on the map for all players. The players don't fight but compete to acquire gods, make sacrifices, collect tiles and build columns on the map - these last into subsequent epochs giving players alternative starting points.
Points are gained through acquiring major and minor gods, building lots of columns plus certain end-game bonuses. The game allowed for a variety of strategies and was a close run thing, with a final bonus allowing James to leapfrog Andy and David right at the end. Final scores James 64, Andy 60, David 59 and Kieron 54.
A fun and clever game. The night was also notable for Andy coming out to greet us and then the dog shutting the door on him, locking him out. Options included driving back to Cheltenham, or visiting the Bear at Rodborough but fortunately Andy managed to break back in.
Points are gained through acquiring major and minor gods, building lots of columns plus certain end-game bonuses. The game allowed for a variety of strategies and was a close run thing, with a final bonus allowing James to leapfrog Andy and David right at the end. Final scores James 64, Andy 60, David 59 and Kieron 54.
A fun and clever game. The night was also notable for Andy coming out to greet us and then the dog shutting the door on him, locking him out. Options included driving back to Cheltenham, or visiting the Bear at Rodborough but fortunately Andy managed to break back in.
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Alien Frontiers - 14 March 2012
The first (Rivals) play of Alien Frontiers, one of Adrian's Christmas games. A lovely-looking and ingenious card and dice game. Various strategies to try, good amounts of interaction between the players, and the exquisite agony of not quite having quite the right dice, resources or spaces on the board to pull off your killer move.
The game appeared well balanced and as James started to pull ahead, the other players could drag him back down whilst improving their scores at the same time. Into the final round, the scores were all around the 5/6 mark but James managed to deploy his last colonies to win with 9 points, Kieron 6 with Adrian and Stuart both on 4. A fun and cunning game, which looks to have a couple of expansions already, one of which (Factions) usefully expands the game to five players.
The game appeared well balanced and as James started to pull ahead, the other players could drag him back down whilst improving their scores at the same time. Into the final round, the scores were all around the 5/6 mark but James managed to deploy his last colonies to win with 9 points, Kieron 6 with Adrian and Stuart both on 4. A fun and cunning game, which looks to have a couple of expansions already, one of which (Factions) usefully expands the game to five players.
Thursday, 1 March 2012
City Tycoon and Samurai Card Game - 29 February
A quorum formed on the first Wednesday Rivals games session ever to be held on a leap day for two cracking games:
City Tycoon, a clever game of building city blocks with different buildings and supplying them with water, electricity and goods to gain victory points. 3 strategies emerged;
- James decided to go for the big hitting buildings which gained 4 or 5 VPs straight away as well as linking the support buildings cleverly to gain extra VPs almost every time he delivered anything.
- Orhan went for the monopoly of water and electricity plants
- Kieron went for yellow buildings (and their supporting ones) and a network of goods producing buidings which also provided VPs
James took an early lead which proved to be too much. With Orhan and Kieron closing towards the end James won with 42, Orhan had 36 and Kieron 30.
As we played this game in a little over an hour, we had time for Samurai (the card game) by our old favourite Reiner Knizia. What an ingenious game this is! I cannot believe it is so low down on BGG as it has the potential to be a classic. Cards are laid down in a chequerboard pattern with village cards in the gaps. You have to gain control of villages by surrounding them with more control points than your opponents. When you do this you gain shapes (triangles, squares and/or circles). If you do not hold the majority in any of these at the game end then you score zero! If you have a majority then you can score but your score is equal to the number of shapes you gained that were not in your majority! This means that you have to keep your eye on several things; what shaped villages are coming up in the stock pile, what shapes your opponents are collecting and what villages are being fought over on the table. This is a game that is much more fun played at speed (methinks) - we did our best on this, even James who spent a bit more time analysing and consequently won!
Points James 12, Orhan 6 and Kieron 0 after being pipped by James on the circles and having no majority.
Those numerically inclined might spot a pattern in the scores in both games to complement the numerically interesting date!
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