We'd only played Sylla once before, in January, and James had missed out that time. Funnily enough, the prior experience of Andy and David turned out to act against us, as our imperfect memory of the game led us both to make some dire decisions.
In the previous game, famine had been relatively unimportant and Andy's cash pile hadn't stood up to David's manipulation of the event phase. This knowledge, combined with the arrival of an event that blocked the money generating stalls from working led to James picking up multiple stalls relatively easily. However David's attempt to keep the event in play failed and James was quickly so flush with cash that he was able to dominate the first consul and the great work phases. This soon led to him taking control of character recruitment and then events creating an unassailable lead. Just to rub it in, famine hit hard resulting in David going backwards on the score track. David and Andy spent the rest of the game scrapping for second place with David just beating Andy in the final scoring.
I'm not sure how often prior experience of a game has proven to be a complete handicap.
Final scores: James 85, David 54, Andy 49
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Saturday, 10 October 2015
Nations - 7 October 2015
A second go at Nations, this time with just 3 players (James, David and Adrian). The smaller number meant that we could play the entire game of 4 epochs through to the finish comfortably. This game is possibly the most complex of all the Eurogames that we've played recently, not so much in terms of the rules, but rather the variables and choices that present each turn. In this go, James went for the asymmetric tactic of not developing militarily. In the final analysis we agreed that this probably wasn't a winning strategy, since military forces enable multiple benefits (from colonies to battles) that are unavailable to the pacifist. We reckoned that this wasn't unreasonable in terms of what the game was trying to simulate, but it did mean that the final scores were a play off between Adrian and David. The end result: Adrian 35, David 34, James 27. Worth playing again soon a trois...
Sunday, 4 October 2015
Castles of Burgundy - 30 September 2015
Another outing for Castles of Burgundy. Great game with variety of strategies, but David's and Adrian's farmyard collections made the difference this time. Final scores: David 127, Adrian 122, James 113 and Andy 94.
Saturday, 19 September 2015
Japan Project - Garden items
One of the items I spotted at Salute had sold out by the time I found them, but were available again at Colours last weekend. It's another laser cut MDF kit...
...but with all the accessories (paper, grit, stones, moss) to make up a Japanese-style garden with four lanterns and seven assorted planters. It's really designed for more modern gaming but I think it will fit. And there's plenty of leftovers to make a larger Japanese rock garden.
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
Amun-Re - 16 September 2015
James and Stu at David's for a return to Amun-Re.
The Old Kingdom had James doing everything he could to keep the sacrifice phase low to support his caravan income alive. Stu meanwhile used his massive farm income to make large offerings and claim the 3 item bonus. David avoided the extremes and was able to collect the second place bonus for minimal payment.
The first half completed with us each gaining the same temple set bonus, but by building for the "most pyramid" bonuses David and Stu pulled away from James. David managed to complete a bonus card for three extra points. However as with many of these games, the first scoring is only a small part of the whole picture.
Moving into the New Kingdom, James built up a massive income, while David struggled to make any money as he was less successful than James at holding down the sacrifice offers. Stu collected a large number of cheap build power cards and was able to use them to develop several large pyramid complexes.
James' purchasing power really told as we added up the final scores. Before the final money bonus, James and David were tied on 41 with Stu on 40. Then James revealed his loadsamoney wad and the final score was James 47, David 45, Stu 42. A really close and enjoyable game.
Footnote: I went back to the rules to check a few things afterwards and discovered a few things we weren't doing right. You can discard a power card at any time in exchange for a gold. Useful especially when you realise you aren't going to make the bonus cards work. The 8 income card is placed onto a province and replaces that province's income for this round. We should also be stricter on when cards can be played (something we realised part way through), although it is a shame the cards don't have that information on them. Finally (and crucially) you can't play more than one power card of a particular type in a phase. In other words you can only play one cheap build card each round, and during the scoring phase you can't use more than one of each type of bonus card.
The Old Kingdom had James doing everything he could to keep the sacrifice phase low to support his caravan income alive. Stu meanwhile used his massive farm income to make large offerings and claim the 3 item bonus. David avoided the extremes and was able to collect the second place bonus for minimal payment.
The first half completed with us each gaining the same temple set bonus, but by building for the "most pyramid" bonuses David and Stu pulled away from James. David managed to complete a bonus card for three extra points. However as with many of these games, the first scoring is only a small part of the whole picture.
Moving into the New Kingdom, James built up a massive income, while David struggled to make any money as he was less successful than James at holding down the sacrifice offers. Stu collected a large number of cheap build power cards and was able to use them to develop several large pyramid complexes.
James' purchasing power really told as we added up the final scores. Before the final money bonus, James and David were tied on 41 with Stu on 40. Then James revealed his loadsamoney wad and the final score was James 47, David 45, Stu 42. A really close and enjoyable game.
Footnote: I went back to the rules to check a few things afterwards and discovered a few things we weren't doing right. You can discard a power card at any time in exchange for a gold. Useful especially when you realise you aren't going to make the bonus cards work. The 8 income card is placed onto a province and replaces that province's income for this round. We should also be stricter on when cards can be played (something we realised part way through), although it is a shame the cards don't have that information on them. Finally (and crucially) you can't play more than one power card of a particular type in a phase. In other words you can only play one cheap build card each round, and during the scoring phase you can't use more than one of each type of bonus card.
Saturday, 12 September 2015
Colours 2015
After last year's hiatus, Colours was back again at Newbury Racecourse today, but just today rather than the whole weekend. Andy and I drove up in the morning, and I bumped into Adrian a few times who was there in the afternoon. I missed Jonathan but he was spotted by Adrian.
I really like this show - I hope they can keep it going. It certainly seemed to be popular with traders and wargamers - probably a bit more crushed than usual since folks only had the one day to get there.
I bought a resin river (seven 12 inch long pieces), a Nissen Hut and pill boxes for Dad's Army scenarios, a pack of Japanese garden items, and some paints and basing materials. Not a bad haul.
As usual, some great looking participation and demonstration games. Here are my favourites:
I really like this show - I hope they can keep it going. It certainly seemed to be popular with traders and wargamers - probably a bit more crushed than usual since folks only had the one day to get there.
I bought a resin river (seven 12 inch long pieces), a Nissen Hut and pill boxes for Dad's Army scenarios, a pack of Japanese garden items, and some paints and basing materials. Not a bad haul.
As usual, some great looking participation and demonstration games. Here are my favourites:
Ben-Hur in Playmobil
Amazing scenery in an American Civil War game
Another colourful game (ECW?)
Stunning interior
A close up of the bar area
Modern Afghanistan
Wings of Glory with clouds, zeppelin and lots (and lots) of planes
'Allo 'Allo game (I loved the mat - googled it when I got home - £59!)
Beautiful painting on one of the figure manufacturer stands
WW1 stretcher bearer game
DBA - a second helping
I also really enjoyed our DBA evening this week - all the good bits of DBM (nice looking battle, variety of troop types) without the 3.5 hour play time. So those 6-1 dice rolls can't ruin an entire half-day - just finish your 45-60 minute game, and hope for better luck next time! Here's a few more photos:
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