Nations - 2 September 2015

We tried out one of Adrian's 2015 Xmas presents at Stu's last week - Nations, a new game from a Finnish designer which continues in the tradition of Civilization but adds an abstract Eurogames approach.  Players buy card upgrades each round to increase military power, state stability, and production of various resources.  Golden Ages can provide extra resources or victory points as can winning battles.  Starting wars has the general affect of causing grief to the other players and encouraging a military arms race.  And this was the tactic that started a Stu/James militarism vibe that went through the game and probably contributed to Stu and James coming out on top - that, plus the construction of Wonders of the world that gave James more options than the rest of us.  Although we only played 5 of the possible 8 epochs, we started late and had to go through the rules so this is probably a game we could finish comfortably in an evening.  Final scores: James 35; Stu 28; Adrian 22; Deej 15; Andy 7.

Notre Dame & Ra - 26 August 2015

Just the three of us last week, so we tried Notre Dame.  The closeness of the regions with three provided easier pickings with the carriage movement, and Stuart and Andy pretty much cleaned up before James got a look in, but he did get an early visit to the Cathedral instead.  Rats came and went, character cards provided variety, and we had a good close game.  Final scores Stuart 51, James 49, Andy 43.

Time then for perennial favourite Ra.  With three players, each has four bidding tokens, so potentially more opportunities to win bids, but the best bid token (13) wasn't even used in two of the epochs, due to rapid arrival of Ra cards.  Final scores James 47, Andy 34, Stuart 26.

Alea Iacta Est & Maori - 19 August 2015

The three player version of Alea Iacta Est dispenses with the Templum and Fortuna cards, removing on the options and strategies of the game.  This makes the Senate Cards even more important and James maxed out on cards which provided extra bonuses.  We all had about the same points based on the provinces and citizens, but the Senate Card bonuses gave the final scores of James 54, David 38 and Andy 33.

Time then for a game of Maori - the island exploration game.  Andy had a bit of bad luck with island opportunities at the beginning of the game and couldn't catch up, and the final scores were James 49, David 43 and Andy 18.

Train Robbery & Eight Minute Empire - 12 August 2015

Building on our commitment to more frequent figures games, James hosted a Wild West train robbery scenario.  This was played once before back in December 2007!  The train is carrying the Cavalry payroll and the desperados have to attack the train and steal the money.

The neat twist is that the train is static on the table and the scenery scrolls past each turn, forcing the players to take evasive action.

The train had three flat beds, two of which I converted to a goods wagon and a passenger carriage.  I formed a carriage from foam card which could slide over the flat bed.

The train was attacked by three bandits (Adrian, David and Andy) and James umpired and defended with three lawmen on the train and three members of the US Cavalry.  There were fights on roof tops, shoot outs in carriages (with some incredible misses), and regrettably no failed Jump rolls as characters leapt from their horses to the train, or across the roof tops.  But the good guys were vanquished and the James-Younger Gang escaped with the loot.

This is really a two-player scenario and although it was a good re-introduction to the Warhammer ruleset Legends of the Old West, it didn't give each player that much to do.  So I hope to run a proper multiplayer game with a posse each within the next few months.

Back in 2007, we took a photo each turn and posted a stop-motion video on YouTube.  This time, I used the Framelapse app to take a frame every second, which at 30fps means an hour long game is a two minute video.

With hindsight, I should have repositioned the camera when the action moved further up the train, but it gives a flavour of the action and how the scenery scrolls past.  You can see the bandits chase the train, jump on the guard van, knock a sheriff off, and then start working their way up the train.  The cavalry arrive from the top right with one killed by David's shotgun before getting anywhere near the train.

We finished the evening with another quick game of Eight Minute Empire, using the other side of the board with more islands.  Some very close scores but a triumph for Andy.  Final scores: Andy 11, David and Adrian on 10, and James on 9.

Eight Minute Empire & Downfall of Pompeii - 29 July 2015

First play of David's birthday gift to James.  Eight Minute Empire claims to be learned in one minute and played in twenty (not sure where the eight comes from...).  The small board has a large number of territories on a small number of continents.  Players buy cards that allow then to add counters to the board, or move them across land and sea, and a couple of other options, in order to maximise the territories and continents they control.  But the cards also represent resources, and sets of these earn additional points at the end of the game.  Neat, good fun and does play in 20-30 minutes even with us!  Final scores: James 12, Andy 9, David 8 and Stuart 7.

Plenty of time for a medium-length second game - Downfall of Pompeii.  The first half of the game is placing people, and the second half is directing lava flows over your opponents - Nya Ha Ha!  Final scores: Stuart 8, David 7, James 7 (3rd place since more people killed by lava!), and Andy 5.

Tikal II - 15 July 2015

We hadn't played this for a long while and it was new to a couple of the crew.  Quite long instructions to get through but a reasonably simple game to play with a nice theme (although teleportation of keys and treasures appears to occur between canoeist and explorer!).

Adrian created a strong early lead by exploring the secret buildings outside the main pyramid and maintained it for the rest of the game, with David just reaching him at one point.  James squeezed into 2nd place ahead of David in the final scoring thanks to pair of bonus cards, with Andy in 4th.

Shako - 8 July 2015: 1809 mini-campaign game 1

Aiming for a figures game every month or so, this week saw a tactical game of Shako hopefully leading up to a refight of the 1809 Battle of Eckmuhl between the French and her German Allies and the Austrians.  In this Divisional battle, Friant's 2nd Division of Davout's III French Corps (James and Andy) engaged the Austrian General Sommariva's Division (JP and David) who were defending the village of Hausen.  Given their requirement to attack into the face of the Austrian defence the French had slightly more troops - Pajol's Brigade consisting of the 5th Hussars plus a Horse Battery; Grandeau's Brigade consisting of the 108th and 111th Line Regiments; and Barbanegre's Brigade of the 48th Line Regiment - the latter Brigades with Foot Batteries and detached skirmishers.

The Austrian defenders had Radivojevich's column consisting of the Austrian 3rd Hussars plus two Battalions of the 9th Grenz Infantry; and Pfanzelter's column made up of 5 large battalions of Austrian line infantry (3 battalions of Manfredini's Infantry Regiment number 12 and 2 battalions of the Wurzburg Infantry Regiment number 3), also with guns and skirmishers.  The Austrian infantry were deployed defending the town and the light troops and hussars on the other side of the river - fordable just below the Austrian front line.

I opted to use a new mechanism for deployment, given each side playing cards representing the position of their Brigades plus an additional dummy cavalry card.  The players could see whether the opposite side was deploying infantry or cavalry but not the exact make up of the force and one of the cavalry cards was a blind.  

After the first move - French Hussars and Horse Battery approach the Austrians on the left bank whilst the French infantry move in echelon to the far right

The French tactics were to try to break the Austrian forces on the left bank by attrition from the horse battery and to ignore the town sector and send the infantry to the far right to punch through the Austrian line.

The last turn.  The Austrian light infantry and hussars are rushing back across the river but too late for the main Austrian infantry brigade which was broken by the fast moving French columns massing all their force on the far right. 

Alas for the 5th Hussars unlucky dice rolling saw the Austrian Hussars break the unit and the battery, allowing those forces to recross the river, but the time this took meant that they were too late to influence the main infantry clash.  On the right bank the French were successful in ignoring the town, although Austrian sallies eliminated 2 French battalions.  The concentration of force on the far right meant that Friant was able to break Pzanfelter's Brigade and hence the Division.  So, Hausen remained in Austrian hands, but Friant's Division were able to break through the Austrian line - a French victory.

The game was fast and tactical and finished in just over 2 hours after set up - very playable.