A worrying moment of deja vu as I arrived at Orhan's before he did quickly passed and we settled down to a four player game of Adrian's Lancaster. Adrian and Kieron passed on some words of wisdom in light of their previous play and off we went. The first thing to note is just how quickly it plays. It seems to pack a lot into the 5 rounds and leaves you wanting more. Our initial tactics varied - Orhan went for castle improvements, Kieron and Adrian went for knight upgrades and nobles and I ended up going for earning extra knights initially by accident (after being bounced from castle improvements to an extra knight county and then making a mistake which left me winning on one of the laws gaining me another) but I quickly decided that as each knight gave me an extra turn this was actually a pretty good strategy to follow.
It took me a while to realise just how important it is to go after the battles in France as the instant rewards can set up the rest of the turn. The only thing that didn't quite gel for me was the voting - it felt a little messy although one poster on boardgamegeek recommended replacing the yes/no tokens with cubes the same size as the voting cubes.
Apparently it had been predicted that this game would be right up my street. Having almost all my knights out by the end of the game gave me so many extra turns that I was able to rack up a lot of extra points earning me my first win of the year.
The results: David 101, Adrian 66, Kieron 64, Orhan 40.
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
Saturday, 12 January 2013
The BoardGameGeek Game - 9 January 2013
First try of a game I bought second-hand from the Ragnar Brothers back at the UK Games Expo last May. The BoardGameGeek Game was published to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the BoardGameGeek website.
Players represent one of six (real) game publishers supplying their company’s (real) games to the games shops of the Cotswold village of Boardway, receiving Geek Gold (GG) for each game they sell to another player. Then each player has a team of three ‘dicey’ geeks who are trying to collect sets of games to meet their gaming group’s requirements, which earns more GG at the end of the game.
It was fun to play a game celebrating a website we use so much and with lots of the games we play featured in the game itself. But the game split the group in terms of whether or not it was too random to make tactics pretty irrelevant. As a novelty game, it was better than I expected. You have to keep aware of what others are collecting and decide whether to compete or not, or make it harder to buy the games of yours they need, so there was more to it than there might have been. But compared to the pair of cracking new games we played in the last games night of 2012, it's nowhere.
Final scores: Adrian 144, David 131, James 120, Orhan 108, Stuart 107 and Kieron 99 - missing getting into three figures by being cursed with starting third on only ten points which really made it impossible to win, and frankly the fact that he even carried on from such a handicapped starting position deserves an extra bonus of at least five points....
Players represent one of six (real) game publishers supplying their company’s (real) games to the games shops of the Cotswold village of Boardway, receiving Geek Gold (GG) for each game they sell to another player. Then each player has a team of three ‘dicey’ geeks who are trying to collect sets of games to meet their gaming group’s requirements, which earns more GG at the end of the game.
It was fun to play a game celebrating a website we use so much and with lots of the games we play featured in the game itself. But the game split the group in terms of whether or not it was too random to make tactics pretty irrelevant. As a novelty game, it was better than I expected. You have to keep aware of what others are collecting and decide whether to compete or not, or make it harder to buy the games of yours they need, so there was more to it than there might have been. But compared to the pair of cracking new games we played in the last games night of 2012, it's nowhere.
Final scores: Adrian 144, David 131, James 120, Orhan 108, Stuart 107 and Kieron 99 - missing getting into three figures by being cursed with starting third on only ten points which really made it impossible to win, and frankly the fact that he even carried on from such a handicapped starting position deserves an extra bonus of at least five points....
Saturday, 29 December 2012
Olympus - 28 December 2012
We also played Olympus, a great new game (David's gift to Kieron?) of gods and civilisation. An initially bewildering series of options begins to narrow as you explore the regions around Greece, collecting resources which enable you to make discoveries... and ultimately building Wonders or making higher discoveries which both bring you prestige points.
A wide variety of ways to score (including territories, discoveries and prestige buildings) meant that different strategies yielded a very close outcome, with Adrian just ahead with 50, James 49, Kieron 47 and Andy 37.
Another really good game, and a great evening with the emergence of two excellent new games and being able to play late as it wasn't a school night ;-)
A wide variety of ways to score (including territories, discoveries and prestige buildings) meant that different strategies yielded a very close outcome, with Adrian just ahead with 50, James 49, Kieron 47 and Andy 37.
Another really good game, and a great evening with the emergence of two excellent new games and being able to play late as it wasn't a school night ;-)
Lancaster - 28 December 2012
As the second round of a two-games-Xmas-Friday-games-night-special we got out Lancaster, Adrian's combined birthday and Xmas present from Kieron.
This game probably has the highest production values for any of the games we own - excellent quality wooden pieces, very heavy cards, nice artwork, and everything beautifully designed. The rules are simple (4 pages) but very rich - multiple choices each turn, different strategies to pursue, voting on laws which allows for Derrening (and in this first late night games two spectacular errors from James and Kieron who voted the wrong way on a couple of laws they really cared about), and some fighting over squares on the board - and it's all over in 15 phases which makes it quick. The lovely thing about this game is that it all hangs together so well, we spent the 90 mins it took for the first play discovering new tactics and possibilities - lots of 'aaahhh' moments. Overall a super game which those present (Adrian, Kieron, James and Andy) voted an instant classic. James took first place with 70, then Adrian on 63, Kieron on 56 and Andy on 48.
On the rules point we queried, the forum is clear that there is no limit on the number of knights you can have in play, the 4 slots in the castle and on the board are for players to stack their knights of different strengths.
Let's play this again soon.
This game probably has the highest production values for any of the games we own - excellent quality wooden pieces, very heavy cards, nice artwork, and everything beautifully designed. The rules are simple (4 pages) but very rich - multiple choices each turn, different strategies to pursue, voting on laws which allows for Derrening (and in this first late night games two spectacular errors from James and Kieron who voted the wrong way on a couple of laws they really cared about), and some fighting over squares on the board - and it's all over in 15 phases which makes it quick. The lovely thing about this game is that it all hangs together so well, we spent the 90 mins it took for the first play discovering new tactics and possibilities - lots of 'aaahhh' moments. Overall a super game which those present (Adrian, Kieron, James and Andy) voted an instant classic. James took first place with 70, then Adrian on 63, Kieron on 56 and Andy on 48.
On the rules point we queried, the forum is clear that there is no limit on the number of knights you can have in play, the 4 slots in the castle and on the board are for players to stack their knights of different strengths.
Let's play this again soon.
Monday, 24 December 2012
Power Grid: The First Sparks - 19 December 2012
First play of Orhan's Power Grid: The First Sparks. This was an ingenious game of Stone Age development borrowing the Power Grid brand and some of the game mechanisms. Significantly, it wasn't simply a reworking of Power Grid - it's a different game requiring a different approach - but there's a welcome familiarity with how parts of the game work. I'm keen to play this again before the rules fade from our minds.
I've mislaid the paper with the scores but I think the final order was something like: David 1st, then Kieron, Adrian, James, Andy & Orhan. I'm sure someone will shout if I've got that wrong ;-)
I've mislaid the paper with the scores but I think the final order was something like: David 1st, then Kieron, Adrian, James, Andy & Orhan. I'm sure someone will shout if I've got that wrong ;-)
Sunday, 9 December 2012
Rivals Weekend - 7-9 December 2012
Another in the irregular "Camping it up" weekends at the Bungalow ("Bunging it up?") at Whitemead in the Forest. Games played included: Poker, Japanese monster mayhem with King of Tokyo (great with two players but didn't really work with 6), A Brief History of the World, the Mafia-inspired Resistance and (about 8 times) the marvellous 7 Wonders.
Andy and his Advocaat:
Andy getting some fishing tips from Bert & Ernie:
Parkend Station on our walk to the pub:
Slightly surreal life-size nativity on the roof of the leisure centre:
Donner and Blizten:
A small snack from Al's Plaice:
Andy and his Advocaat:
Andy getting some fishing tips from Bert & Ernie:
Parkend Station on our walk to the pub:
Slightly surreal life-size nativity on the roof of the leisure centre:
Donner and Blizten:
A small snack from Al's Plaice:
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Peloponnes - 5 December 2012
A full house of 7 round at David's for a pre-weekend away game. So it was back to rivals-favourite Peloponnes with my newly purchased "Goat Expansion". Yes really. I'm not making it up. The expansion allows us to play with seven players and adds a new resource (goats believe it or not) and some tiles that allow their acquisition. Goats form a wildcard resource - they have no use in themselves, but when you buy a new goat tile you can cash in your goats for other resources.
From reading boardgamegeek it appears that the English translation of the rules is wrong - you only cash in on getting the 2nd and subsequent goats tiles - we read it as allowing you to cash in straight away. This might make goats a more useful alternative strategy - they only really become attractive if you concentrate on them whereas our interpretation meant that we were all making a grab for them. It's worth trying again with the right rules, and although it was a bit strange, we have another game to play on the odd week that we have 7 players.
Final Scores: David 30/27, Adrian 27/26, Kieron 27/25, Orhan 18/27, Andy 18/16, James 12/26, Stu 12/17
From reading boardgamegeek it appears that the English translation of the rules is wrong - you only cash in on getting the 2nd and subsequent goats tiles - we read it as allowing you to cash in straight away. This might make goats a more useful alternative strategy - they only really become attractive if you concentrate on them whereas our interpretation meant that we were all making a grab for them. It's worth trying again with the right rules, and although it was a bit strange, we have another game to play on the odd week that we have 7 players.
Final Scores: David 30/27, Adrian 27/26, Kieron 27/25, Orhan 18/27, Andy 18/16, James 12/26, Stu 12/17
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