Dust - 27 August 2008

The first Rivals try-out of a game Adrian plays with his boys - Dust, introduced to us as "Risks with Tricks". The backstory is a post-WW2 world where the Third Reich discovered and shared alien technology. A map of the world is marked with territories and supply centres highlighted and connected by fixed routes. There are over 800 little pieces of tanks, subs, mechs and planes - fortunately impossible to get more than a fraction of these onto the board during a game - but they are great models.


Five of us playing tonight made for lots of interaction - James getting the brunt of attacks to start with, partly due to his position in Europe but mostly to do with his early steal of supply centres on Kieron and Stu's doorsteps. The game had a neat feature with cards setting initiative, move and attack opportunities as well as providing a different special ability each turn. A fair bit of luck with dice rolling but a well-balanced and fun game. Definitely one to play again.

Kieron's return from his summer break in Central Europe led to a swift reformation of Team Balcarras and although we didn't have enough time to play through to the victory condition of 30 points, the final scores were Stuart 22, Kieron 21, James 18, with Adrian and David both on 16.

Ra - 6 August 2008

We had a strange couple of games of Ra this evening. In the first game, the initial Epoch was over in less than ten minutes as the Ra cards just kept coming, and neither David nor Stuart had bid on any tiles before the turn finished. Andy did manage to win three bids but ended up holding the three lowest bidding chits to start Epoch 2. The third Epoch was over almost as quickly as the first. Final scores were James 48, Andy 32, Stuart 28 and David (having a most un-deejous game) on just 13.

Fates turned in the second game. James started the game with the highest bidding chit but failed to actually use it until the third Epoch. Stuart built a huge number of monuments and a long River Nile, securing the much needed flood card in the last couple of turns. A virtual recount of Stuart's final score gave him the same score as David - 43 - with James on 35 and Andy on 27.

--- Rule 23 alert ---

However, a post-games night check of the rules shows that if players tie for the most fame (victory points) then the player with the highest sun (bidding chit) wins. I recall that David got the bonus +5 for having the greatest total across his three suns, so I think he may have won the game. (Standing by to be corrected...)

Ticket To Ride - 29 July 2008

A couple of great games of Ticket To Ride.

First game: James 118, Stuart 105, David 81, Andy 67
Second game: Stuart 130, David 100, James 80, Andy 78

El Grande - 23 July 2008

Contribution from Andy:

David 99, James 96, Kieron 94, Andy 89, Adrian 83.

James 5, Kieron 4 for the chocolate cake.

Or to hear it in his own words...

Power Grid - 9 July 2008

With both Adrian and David sadly suffering from the lurgy, the four remaining Rivals sat down to the Germany board of Power Grid. Andy straight away attempted to box James into his Western starting position with Kieron threatening to complete the job, but fortunately for James, Kieron and Stuart set up in the East and North respectively, providing them both with plenty of Lebensraum, and James an escape route around Andy's cities.

All players made steady and similar progress in building cities and as the game was about to tip into Step 3 (when six powerplants are available to select from each turn) things were very close with Stuart, Andy and James all with the ability to power thirteen cities and Kieron able to power fourteen.

All players were sitting on fair amounts of money at this stage and Kieron was able to easily build from 11 to 17 cities in a single turn, ending the game that turn to win (for the second week in a row). With everyone else able to power their thirteen cities, it was cash in hand that decided the rest of the places - 2nd for Stuart, 3rd James and 4th Andy (trailing James by just 1 credit). As always, a great game.

Did you spill my pint? - 2 July 2008

Have you heard the one about the governor who walks into a pub? Perhaps emboldened by the personal escort of five marines, he climbs on to the bar and accidentally knocks over a pint. Looking down from the bar, he sees the owner of that pint... and his big, black beard.

The ensuing fist fight between Governor Flack's men (Pugh, Barley McGrew, Cuthbert Dibble and Grubb) and Edward Teach and his gang, was swift and bloody. Bottles flew across the inn - and were patiently swept up by the barmen as they crashed harmlessly against walls.


After the governor and two marines were knocked out, the remaining marines legged it. The victorious pirates felt somewhat sheepish when they realised that one of their two losses was Blackbeard himself. But a win for Adrian, Kieron and James, over Andy, David and Stuart - the first full turn-out for many months.

We then had a game of Carcassonne with the Inns & Cathedrals extension. We hadn't played this at a games night for years. A clever game with lots of options and opportunities to make your own luck. In a completely unconnected way, Kieron had a massive win with 136 points, David 102, Adrian 96, James 94, Stuart 73 and Andy 32.

New England - 25 June 2008

Rivals were thin on the ground this evening, with David and Adrian otherwise engaged, and Andy having a senior moment over the day of the week, but happily Kieron and James were joined by returning long-lost gamer Stuart.

The New England board was set up and narrowly escaped a Smith-made flood of Badger's Poacher's Choice (the mouthful I had first was lovely ;-). After a quick review of the rules, we got stuck into what turned out to be an extremely close game.

The last few rounds were characterised by players taking the expensive 10 marker in order to guarantee they selected tiles and cards first. Having enough money to do this a couple of times, James was able to take the tile that would otherwise have enabled Stuart to win the game well ahead by building his stored red square card for 10 points. As it was, the final scores were James 30, Stuart 29 and Kieron 27. A perfect Rivals game: not complicated but complex in its options, plenty of opportunities to thwart others, and looks really nice.