We'd left it a long time since we last played this game, but we soon remembered how good it was. Soon after setting up we embarked on different strategies. Kieron started putting out palaces as quickly as possible building up an early lead but running out of money. James made use of the Trader card to go first each turn and placed the central palace in several cities. David made use of the Builder card and concentrated on building a road network and making medium level scores in each city. Andy scooted around using the board using the monk, but gifted David a lot of cash for the use of his network.
Midway through the game Kieron, James and David were all with 4 palaces left to place and Andy was one behind. Then a series of fortunate events led to David acquiring some extra cash and being forced to give up the builder and take the cheap palaces card. Next turn he palced two palaces getting to a lead that the others couldn't catch.
Result: David (7), James (6), Kieron (6), Andy (5). James edged Kieron for second place on money.
We agreed it was a good game, although maybe the end game may be a bit lacking. Once someone gets ahead it's difficult to stop them. Maybe the game-end conditions need to be different from the victory conditions (like in Powergrid).
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Railway Rivals - 17 June 2009
A (mostly) welcome return to the game that started it all. Amazing to think we spent a good couple of years playing Railway Rivals every Wednesday night in the early nineties. This was the first play of the Games Workshop boxed version that James bought at Newbury a couple of years ago (as opposed to the home-produced roll version originally purchased by James at Duncan's recommendation from Gameskeeper in Oxford's Cowley Road in June 1993).
The GW version has been simplified in a couple of places for families with the most significant (and worrying) change being the replacement of the 2,3,3,4,4,5 average die with a standard D6. We decided we could live with most of the rule changes but not that - so the average die was retrieved from the other set.
We played the original London-Liverpool map and the final scores were Orhan 181, Adrian 173, James 171, Kieron 133 and David 131.
Like other things that one spent a lot of time on and enjoyed in the past (Risk, The Clangers), it's never quite the same on return, and difficult to understand what the original enthusiasm was all about. But it was the game that started Games Night and brought the Rivals together, so will always be held in affection (even if we don't want to play it again for another five years!).
The GW version has been simplified in a couple of places for families with the most significant (and worrying) change being the replacement of the 2,3,3,4,4,5 average die with a standard D6. We decided we could live with most of the rule changes but not that - so the average die was retrieved from the other set.
We played the original London-Liverpool map and the final scores were Orhan 181, Adrian 173, James 171, Kieron 133 and David 131.
Like other things that one spent a lot of time on and enjoyed in the past (Risk, The Clangers), it's never quite the same on return, and difficult to understand what the original enthusiasm was all about. But it was the game that started Games Night and brought the Rivals together, so will always be held in affection (even if we don't want to play it again for another five years!).
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Ice Flow and New England - 10 June 2009
Only 4 rivals tonight but this gave James the chance to "show and tell" his two new games. He was itching for us to play Ice Flow so we did! Players must hop from ice sheet to ice sheet picking up rope and fish to help them on their journey from USA to Russia. We decided to ignore rule 23 this week and allow players to move any ice sheets rather than neutral or player controlled ones. This lead to much hilarity as Stuart was shunted back and Kieron just moaned about not getting the game. It was fairly level until the fish ran out and somehow Stuart and James managed to work their way into winning positions. Then the move of the evening from James as he pushed a polar bear on to Stuart's ice sheet allowing him a free move to win the game. DOH!
We then had an hour to kill so Kieron brought down an old favourite, New England. This game is always nip and tuck. Deej managed to secure plenty of land and Stuart went all out to constrain James as much as possible. Kieron kept forgetting to use his ship bonus which nearly left him missing the opportunity to cash in one of the tasty red 10 cards. Stuart and James fought over the 'most men' bonus and as the last card was drawn, the final scores read James 34, Stuart 33, Kieron 31 and Deej 30.
Ice Flow......OK if played quickly for no more than an hour.
New England......good fun (who says it has too much luck?)
We then had an hour to kill so Kieron brought down an old favourite, New England. This game is always nip and tuck. Deej managed to secure plenty of land and Stuart went all out to constrain James as much as possible. Kieron kept forgetting to use his ship bonus which nearly left him missing the opportunity to cash in one of the tasty red 10 cards. Stuart and James fought over the 'most men' bonus and as the last card was drawn, the final scores read James 34, Stuart 33, Kieron 31 and Deej 30.
Ice Flow......OK if played quickly for no more than an hour.
New England......good fun (who says it has too much luck?)
Saturday, 6 June 2009
UK Games Expo - 6 June 2009
Andy and I took a hazardous drive up a canal-like M5 to Birmingham for the UK Games Expo. Still a small and friendly venue, focussed more on board games than figures, with the odd RPG-er and Dalek wandering about.
Lots of new board games to look at, and I bought the winners of the Best New British Game at the last two years' Expos - Fagin's Gang (2-6 player economic i.e. thieving game) and Ice Flow (2-4 player Niagara-like game).
The Bring-and-Buy provided a couple of German bargains too - Ulysees (3-5 exploration/influencing game) and Verrat! (4 player palace intrigue, "Betrayal" in English).
Together with some new Wild West figures, some pirate cannons and an obligatory set of dice, a very happy shopping experience!
Lots of new board games to look at, and I bought the winners of the Best New British Game at the last two years' Expos - Fagin's Gang (2-6 player economic i.e. thieving game) and Ice Flow (2-4 player Niagara-like game).
The Bring-and-Buy provided a couple of German bargains too - Ulysees (3-5 exploration/influencing game) and Verrat! (4 player palace intrigue, "Betrayal" in English).
Together with some new Wild West figures, some pirate cannons and an obligatory set of dice, a very happy shopping experience!
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Ticket To Ride, Gnadenlos - 3 June 2009
A welcome return for Ticket To Ride. Scoring in the building phase was pretty well-balanced but the variety of success in satisfying the Destination Tickets saw quite a spread in the final reckoning, with Kieron going backwards to 54, Adrian and David jumping forward to 113 and 118 respectively, and James taking first place with four fortuitously close routes and 145 points.
Four players meant a chance to get out the cowboy game Gnadenlos. Usually quite quick, this somehow ended up taking 90 mins as well and despite never managing to rustle up a proper posse, Adrian won the game with his succession of winning cowpokes.
Four players meant a chance to get out the cowboy game Gnadenlos. Usually quite quick, this somehow ended up taking 90 mins as well and despite never managing to rustle up a proper posse, Adrian won the game with his succession of winning cowpokes.
Friday, 22 May 2009
Dominion - 20 May 2009
(James writes) I hadn't played this before and was really taken with the unique game mechanism. The two games we played felt quite different as we changed the stacks of cards, so I'm sure this has plenty of mileage. Very clever and fun.
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Vinci - 13 May 2009
(David writes) We hadn't played Vinci for a while, but the rules are pretty straightforward and it was easy to remember. The game started quietly with us all keeping to the same pace until about 3 turns in when both James and David stalled and Kieron and Stu started to break away.
Halfway through the game - disaster - we realised that Andy's unstoppable nation was actually using far more armies than permitted. (To be fair it was easily done - especially when people were killing your men and tossing them back into your stack.)
A hasty discussion followed in an attempt to restore balance - and then we proceeded to watch as Kieron shot away from the rest of us. In spite of Orhan's best efforts to get the rest of us to attack Kieron in the final round and leave the way open for him - such blatent acts of kingmaking were resisted and Kieron earned yet another victory.
The surprise was James moving from near last to second in the final turn. I finished a disappointing last - but I consider getting through the rules reading without killing anyone a minor victory.
Vinci just about plays 6 although the board is extremely cramped and it's difficult to get the ebb and flow feel you get with with 3-5 players.
Final score: Kieron 102, James 93, Andy 92, Orhan 92, Stu 89, David 83
Halfway through the game - disaster - we realised that Andy's unstoppable nation was actually using far more armies than permitted. (To be fair it was easily done - especially when people were killing your men and tossing them back into your stack.)
A hasty discussion followed in an attempt to restore balance - and then we proceeded to watch as Kieron shot away from the rest of us. In spite of Orhan's best efforts to get the rest of us to attack Kieron in the final round and leave the way open for him - such blatent acts of kingmaking were resisted and Kieron earned yet another victory.
The surprise was James moving from near last to second in the final turn. I finished a disappointing last - but I consider getting through the rules reading without killing anyone a minor victory.
Vinci just about plays 6 although the board is extremely cramped and it's difficult to get the ebb and flow feel you get with with 3-5 players.
Final score: Kieron 102, James 93, Andy 92, Orhan 92, Stu 89, David 83
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