Amun-Re - 26th June 2013

Forgot to blog this one at the time. I managed to get Amun-Re out for another go and it's really neat little game. It has a great bidding mechanism, elements of luck and lots of different ways to score. Let's try to play this one more than once a year?

Scores: David 44, Kieron 39, Andy 35, James 31 and Orhan 29

Porto Carthago - 19 June 2013

First play for Orhan's latest purchase - direct from Pelopennes designer Bernd Eisenstein himself - Porto Carthago.  This is a worker placement game set in the ancient port of Carthage, with players using their influence to buy goods from the market, load them onto ships bound for other ancient cities to earn money, and ultimately to build up influence in the palace.

Lots of ingenious mechanisms, some lovely artwork, and memories of Pelopennes meant we had high hopes.  But it just didn't seem to come together and some of the mechanisms seemed broken - we were accruing far more money than we needed, we were turning away countless ships from the port.  Although we were each having various levels of success, nobody thought it felt quite right.

Right at the end of the night, another read of the confusing rules (where perhaps some clarity was lost in translation) revealed the missing Rule 23.  Each of the five decades didn't comprise five turns - but one turn in which each player had five actions, so the ships that arrived and the income earned had to last five times longer than we playing it for.

Much relieved and with faith restored in Bernd, we resolved to play this again soon with the proper rules.  But we were all playing with the wrong rules, so Andy deserves his win - gaining 7 influence in the palace, James coming 2nd with 5, unable to sustain and build on his early lead, and Kieron and Orhan both on 4, but with Kieron edging into 3rd place with more trading points.

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"!