Romans vs Persians - 13 August 2016

A belated write-up of a figures game at Jonathan's last month.  The game pitched the Romans against the Persians and used the very playable Augustus to Aurelian ruleset.  These rules work really well with the randomness resulting from the use of a card deck balanced by the "Carpe Diem" cards.

The game objective was to capture carts transporting Roman ale and Jonathan provided the real thing from nearby Corinium.  There was a big cavalry battle on one flank, some shooting but not lot of contact on the other, and an infantry scrap in the middle.  Kieron and Jonathan's Romans carried the day against Andy and James' Persians.

Alea Iacta Est & Colt Express - 31 August 2016

Another game of Alea Iacta Est where different strategies resulted in very close scores.  Andy initially resisted but soon succumbed to his usual Fortuna strategy, James went for SPQR cards, David all out on provinces and patricians, and Adrian with a balanced approach.  Final scores: David 42, James 40, Adrian 38, Andy 37.

This was followed by more fun with Colt Express.  We randomised the characters this time so we didn't get the character and special ability that just happened to match the usual colour we each play with.  Adrian made an early bold push to the loco and picked up the case of money.  Strangely, David and Andy also gravitated to the front of the train, allowing James to sit in the end car picking up the numerous items of loot there.  When the train reached the station, Adrian and James had collected the same value of loot but the shooting done by James and David (mostly at each other) earned them both an extra $1000 as top gunslingers.  Final scores: James $3250, Adrian $2250, David $2050, Andy $950.

Biblical DBA - 24 August

Another excellent DBA evening last night, this time with Biblical period armies - including Adrian's Xmas and Birthday presents from Andy (Sea Peoples and Hittites).  The four armies were asymmetrical (the Nubians' bows deadly to the New Kingdom Egyptian and Hittite chariots; the Sea Peoples' Blades bad news for the Nubians' bow) and there were a good range of troop types.  In the event, Andy's Nubians lost to the Sea Peoples and Hittites but beat the Egyptians, accruing 8 points; Adrian's Sea Peoples lost to the Egyptians but beat Hittites and Nubians (10 points); James' Egyptians beat the Sea Peoples but lost to Nubians and Hittites (8 points); and David's Hittites lost to the Sea Peoples but beat the others (8 points).  So a closely fought and enjoyable night. 

The Sea Peoples invade Nubia

The Hittites invade Egypt

Nubian bow strike Sea People auxilia

The Sea Peoples invade Egypt

The Hittites march on Nubia

Nubian bow shoot down the Egyptians

More Wild West scenery

This weekend, I made a few more flat-pack kits from Sarissa Precision for my Wild West town: a water tower, a windmill water pump, and a stagecoach.

St Petersburg - 17 August 2016

An outside game at Andy's for Kieron's last game with us this visit.  He wasn't allowed to choose the game though as Andy insisted on thrashing us at St Petersburg again.  It was a close run thing - David's buildings were scoring high but Andy's collection of nobles got the largest final bonus.

Final scores: Andy 84, David 70, James 63, Kieron 60

We finished the evening with a good few go-kart races on Andy's track.

Artificium - 11 August

James' second new game of the evening was introduced as a "typical David game". Artificium plays quickly over five turns and is about building up production lines by chaining the playing of cards to maximise your point score. There's a slightly nasty part where one of the cards lets you select a player to send back which smells a little of kingmaking for all good Rivals but if it's in the rules...

As predicted, David won, but only just...

David 58, Kieron 56, Andy 54 and James 47

Colt Express - 11 August

James brought round a couple of new games this week. First up was Colt Express, a clever mash up of a skirmish game with some elements of a card builder like Dominion and advance planning like Robo Rally. It follows the same theme as one of James' figures games, with the players controlling wild west train robbers.

The game uses a clever game mechanic of having the player pre-program their moves from a limited selection. You can choose to shoot, fight, steal goods, move and so on, but have to plan it out in advance. Some of your choices are made openly, others secretly so you have an idea what your opponents are planning, but not the complete picture.

Our first game resulted in James getting stuck in and shooting up the other robbers, especially Andy and Kieron. Andy nipped around collecting a lot of low value items off James and Kieron. David ended up at the other end of the train being hunted by the Marshall until he was able to get him out of the way (with the unwilling help of James) and grab the big prize.

End result: David 2250, Andy 2150, James 1500 (including sharpshooter bonus), Kieron 800.