Tigris & Euphrates and Gold Diggers - 29 May 2013

A hard core of 4 gamers this week - James, Orhan and Andy at Adrian's ('assisted' by various children throughout the evening).  We dug out an old favourite, Tigris & Euphrates, that Andy and Orhan had never played.  James and I suspected that we hadn't played this one for a good number of years.  This is a classic Knizia tile placement game where victory points are acquired by extending one's kingdom and most notably by constructing and then owning monuments.  James' tactics of building up a strong kingdom and creaming everyone in a series of well chosen fights saw him to a clear victory, with Orhan and Andy equal second, and Adrian last.  I've mislaid the paper with the scores but James accrued a large margin over us, something like James 13, Orhan and Andy 7, Adrian 6.

We then got Gold Diggers out for a rapid 3 rounds of another Knizia winner.  Despite Andy getting help from Cottie, James managed to pull off a coup in round 2 (12 points solo on one claim) to allow him to bag a second victory of the evening.  All good fun.

Show and Tell, 27 May: Austrian Grenzers and Cleve-Berg Infantry

The long weekend has allowed me time to finish basing two units of 15mm Napoleonic infantry for Shako.  First up is another battalion of Austrian Grenzer light infantry, complete with alternate skirmish stand.  This is the 3rd Regiment of Grenzers from Ogulin.

The figures are from the recently redesigned Austrian range from Essex Minatures

Next is the second battalion of the 1st Infantry Regiment from the German client state of Cleve-Berg.

Again, these are Essex Miniatures, French Line Infantry painted in Cleve Berg colours

Both battalions in column of attack

Currently on the 15mm painting table is the 2nd French regiment of Carabiniers.  Will probably take a few weeks to get those finished though...

UK Games Expo 2013

Andy and I braved the holiday traffic and drove up to this year's UK Games Expo, now expanded and in a new bigger venue at the NEC Hilton.  Wide variety of attendees - old & young, families, hard-core gamers, cosplay fans, steampunks (including one shopper wearing a gas mask with an Orhan-style leather hat - we don't think it was Orhan.... :-)

Loads of traders, large and small, including folk with their cardboard prototype games.  Looked over the Bring & Buy but managed to resist.  B&B is of course the games that people don't want.  I know that's how I discovered Pelopennes but I've also brought home a lot of rubbish in the past.  But Android's BoardGameGeek app remains the most valuable thing to have at the Expo after your wallet, and saved me again a couple of times today.  There are competitions all weekend (Fields of Glory, Warhammer, Settlers) as well as tens of demonstration/promotional games to join in with.  Our favourite setup was a large scale Ticket to Ride.

And so to my purchases.  The first is a card game from newish company NSKN Legendary Games and is called Wild Fun West.  Four to eight players take the role of a classical Wild West character and work to build a town from scratch. To do this, they employ various professions, from Stagecoach Driver to Sheriff, earn money and construct buildings.  The interaction is in the bidding for the profession cards, the cooperation is in jointly investing in buildings, and the competition is that each player has a secret list of six buildings - and the first to build any four is the winner.  Looks like a quick fun game, especially with larger numbers.

The second (and last!) purchase is an expansion for the amazing Village.  We've really enjoyed every play of that game but as it's only for four, we don't get the opportunity to play it that often.  Well now we will.  I've bought Village Inn, which adds extra buildings (a brewery and a pub, which neatly fit onto the original board), an extra game mechanism (cards representing influential people you meet in the pub), and beer goods tiles.  Importantly, it also provides an extra set of counters for a fifth player, along with bigger graveyard and chronicle tiles to accommodate the wooden figures of all five players.  Really looking forward to playing this one.

Notre Dame - 15 May 2013

James finally succeeded in getting one of his cathedral games played again.  Notre Dame is very popular on BoardGameGeek with someone even building a big 3D version of the game:

We had an early Rule 23 event - although each player selects three action cards, he only plays two of them each turn.  Consequently, influence markers aren't as in quite as short a supply as previously, and the game plays quicker (about 90 minutes).  A wide range of final scores with David on 70, Orhan 60, Andy 47, James 39 and Adrian 31.  Despite the earlier enthusiasm for Alea Iacta Est, most of the Rivals were too tired for a second game so we everyone went home for an early night.

Ra, Alea Iacta Est - 1 May 2013

With no-one in the mood for church building this week, Hamburgum and Notre Dame were returned to the loft to be replaced by Ra, frequently played as the second game of the evening, but we hadn't played it as the main game for a while.  The usual Derren-ing and Russian Roulette antics.  Final scores Stuart 40, Andy and James both on 38, David 28 and Kieron on 24.

Then another outing for new-ish dice game Alea Iacta Est.  Good fun this one, although the rules are too long and not well written.  I found an excellent half-page summary on BGG that we can use next time to start playing sooner, plus a simpler explanation (in larger print for Andy) of what each SPQR Senate card does.

Final scores: David & James on 48, Kieron 39, Andy 35 and Stuart 34.  The rules state that a tie for first place is resolved by the points value of unallocated patricians.  David and James didn't have any, so according to the next bit of the rules, they "rejoiced in their shared victory".  But not for long... Kieron swiftly pointed out that "a victory shared is a victory halved"!

Endeavour - 17 April

After its inclusion in the Rivals collective games cupboard in 2009 (Xmas present from Orhan to Adrian), we played Endeavour three times in 2010 (in January and September), leaving it a mere two and half years before getting it out again for a 5 player session at Adrian's.  As we found before, Endeavour is a taut game played over 7 short rounds that has a lot going for it.  There is a fair amount of luck and no obviously winning strategy, although the common denominator in the two games we played was acquiring high value buildings as soon as possible.  With voyaging, fighting and slavery aplenty, all interests are catered for.  Game one: David 57, Orhan and Kieron 50, James 40 and Adrian 33; Game two: James 60, Orhan 57, David 48, Adrian 38 and Kieron 30.  Good fun.

Lancaster - 3 April

Another outing for the arch-optimisation game Lancaster - deploy your knights, pimp your castle, vote for laws, recruit your nobles and fight the French etc etc...  We were joined by guest gamer Andy the IT Guy from Kieron's school.  Once again Lancaster proved its mettle as a truly clever game where the theme is not merely an afterthought.  We should have known though that the game's bio-rhythms are so intimately attuned with Deej's that, despite a slow start allowing Kieron to establish an early lead, the Optimeister inexorably and completely took us all to the cleaners.  No one is quite sure how he did it.  Again.

Final scores: Deej 100 (yes 100); Adrian 59; Kieron 50; Andy 32; Andy the IT Guy 14.