Power Grid: Factory Manager - 20 October 2010

Kieron and I had both tried Power Grid: Factory Manager as a 2-player game and not been impressed. However there are quite a few games that play very differently with 2, so we decided to try with 5.

The first thing you notice is that despite the name, this game has nothing to do with Rivals' favourite Power Grid. Then the setup takes absolutely ages as you sort and place dozens of tiles in piles on the main playing grid. Not the greatest of first impressions...

However, although I think we all felt a bit lost in the variety of choices early on, the game settled down and proved to be pretty enjoyable. There are some interesting decisions to make: Go early for greater choice, or play later for discounts. There's also the tactic of restricting other players access to pallets - used by Adrian to great effect in one round.

Worth playing again, but not a classic.

End result: Adrian and Kieron tie on 266 (Adrian wins the tie breaker). David on 242, Andy on 190, James on 183 (but he claimed he added his score up wrong...)

Gold Digger twice, 13 October

We had initially intended to play Dominion after Ra, but Adrian couldn’t find it quickly so we dug out a second Reiner Knizia game, Gold Diggers. Carol had originally bought this as a stocking filler for the boys but it is a real gem. Players either allocate value cards to mines or lay claims on those mines, but the beauty is that all 60 cards must be played and it’s a fine balance between committing too early or missing a chance for high points. Lots of luck involved but somehow it feels like there’s more skill involved. We played 2 games, the first of 3 rounds, the second of 2. Scores: Stu 26, Adrian, Orhan and Andy 25, James 22; and then Andy and James joint first on 21, Stu 13, Orhan 11, Adrian 10. A great game.

Ra, 13 October

Five Rivals at Adrian’s this week for a triple games session. Ra was first off the blocks with a thoroughly professional yet light-hearted showing from all players. Kieron’s ‘curse’ of the 10 and 13 tile retention was narrowly avoided by Andy. No one particularly managed to get many monuments and Stu built up and maintained a commanding lead by his use of Nile tiles. Adrian’s pharoah dominance was not enough to jolt Stu from the top slot. Scores: Stu 29, Adrian 27, Orhan 25, James 24, Andy 12.

Hamburgum 6th October

Another outing of Hamburgum, but this time with 4 players. Would the extra player make a big difference to the game play? In brief - Yes. Keiron continued with a game-plan that centred on making regular contibutions, James began to gain a healthy stack of guildhall cards which was looking very good until he was nobbled by Keiron's 'taking one for the team' action which actually meant Stuart did it! Andy amassed loads of cash and materials. However, he only realised late in the game that an important part of the game was to make contributions to the cathedrals. One of many key points that James failed to mention when reading the rules to Andy I am told - next time we will get Keiron to read them! Stuart spotted a previously unused approach involving buying lots of ships and cashing in ship cards. This tactic initially looked to have backfired when James revealed another rule (yes another) about the maximum number of ships a player could have. The game was noticeable for the number of times James commented that he had made a mistake and how it had ensured his 4th place.

In the final shake up an inspired 21 point haul from one of James' 4 cards meant that he just sneaked past Andy. Keiron was just edged out by Stuart's final reveal - another 10 pointer from a ship card.

Scores: Stuart 70 Keiron 68 James 50 Andy 48

Ticket To Ride & Ra - 29 September 2010

We managed to fit in a couple of games this week.  Starting with Ticket To Ride with the 1910 variant (lots of extra tickets, a bonus for successfully using the most tickets, plus larger easier-to-read cards!).  This encourages you to go for more routes but it's challenging with the full five players to get where you need to go.  Despite  thinking he had got to Chicago when his route was actually a town short (a mistake repeated by Stuart on the West Coast), Kieron held on to his lead to win Orhan by just a couple of points.  Final scores Kieron 109, Orhan 107, James 104, Andy 83 and Stuart 71.

Then back to old favourite Ra.  The usual fun plus a new twist introduced by Kieron who only managed to win one auction in each of the three rounds.  And that was by reusing the chip he was picking up in the previous round, so he actually managed to spend the entire game with chips 10 and 13 in front of him.  However, this did have the advantage that he did have the highest value set of chips at the end of the game, enabling him to sneak past Andy (who had the lowest set) in the final scoring.  James went full on for collecting the whole Nile but only managed a single building, and was beaten by Stuart's more balanced set of tiles.  Final scores Stuart 39, James 35, Orhan 28, Kieron 25 and Andy 19.

Hamburgum - 22 September 2010

For a variety of reasons, we were down to just three this week.  We played the beautifully produced Hamburgum (actually the English language side of the board - Londinium) with its clever game mechanisms, including our current favourite - the rondel.

It's not always clear who's winning this game as prestige points from making church donations only need be cashed in when a donation token of the same type is picked up, so the lead changed regularly as we leapfrogged each other on the scoring track.  Kieron and Stuart took a balanced approach whilst James tried a donation-light but building-heavy strategy.

Right up to the final scoring we knew it was close and we couldn't see who was in the lead but James' targeted selection of donation tokens matching his buildings gave him the edge.  The final scores were James 101, Kieron 96 and Stuart 79.  Kieron could have earned bonus points for this week's spillage but made the schoolboy error of knocking tea into his own lap, rather the traditional Brotherton approach of going for the game board or a fellow Rival.

Ra, 15 September

You cannot beat a good game of Ra and once again this provided a fun hour of Derrening and general banter. From starting the first epoch having only bought 4 tiles for the use of 3 suns Adrian cashed in on monuments grabbing a stack of high scoring combos for the last epoch. Pharoahs were largely ignored in terms of tactics and solid play all round meant that things pretty much came down to the last few tiles. A hugely suspenseful counting of the suns’ values revealed that Deej’s optimisation catapulted him to the top, the rest of us lurking close by: Deej 46, Kieron and Adrian 44, James 38 and Stu 24. Great fun.