Peloponnes & Ra - 20 January 2016

A full house this evening for another cracking double bill of Peloponnes and Ra.  Most of the expansions for Peloponnes stayed in the box (as usual) since there are lots of opportunities for different approaches with the standard game plus the seas.

Adrian and Stuart got devastated by disasters hitting their population at the end of the game, James lost almost all of his buildings to an earthquake, Andy played a strong balanced game, but David surged ahead with about half a dozen tiles delivering huge amounts of resources each turn and achieving at one point the previously unheard of position of full population (20!).  Final scores (population/prestige): David 36/29, Andy 21/27, James 30/17, Adrian 12/33, Stuart 12/27.

With Adrian departing for an early start the following day, the remaining four had another hilarious game of Ra.  The highlight was Stuart starting the game with the strongest tile (13) but failing to actually use it until the third epoch.

After nine years of playing this game, it finally dawned on me that with fewer than five players, the Ra tiles are more likely to appear in later epochs than with 5 players.  With five players, an epoch ends after 10 Ra tiles are drawn - so 10 Ra tiles per epoch.  But with three players for example. the epoch ends after 8 Ra tiles - so in the final epoch there are 14 Ra tiles left in the bag.  Not a problem and people suggesting tweaks to this most respected of games seem to get pretty roasted on Board Game Geek, so I don't think we remove Ra tiles with fewer players - it's just something worth considering when you're trying to get a full run of tiles towards the end of the game.

Andy won this game well ahead with a good haul of buildings - final scores Andy 52, David 39, Stuart 34 and James 29.

And as an added bonus, here's a cute photo from a player who clearly travels with their copy of the game!  Several more on BGG in a similar style here.

Keira Knightley in 28mm

One day I will also put on another pirate figures game... an extra incentive is this new governor's daughter figure which could provide some good rescue/capture scenarios:

They don't like it up 'em!

Encouraged by Stuart's recent enthusiastic recollection of the Dad's Army game I put on in November 2014, I finally finished painting my new figures.  Last time we played with my Foundry models which were bought around 15 years ago.  I sold them on eBay and got a set of the Bolt Action figures instead.

Importantly, this set includes Private Walker (criminally omitted from the Foundry set) and the extra bonus is that as well as all the characters in their Home Guard uniforms:

...they also come in their civilian dress:

The set also includes Reverend Timothy Farthing, Verger Maurice Yeatman and of course ARP Warden William Hodges:

So in rank order, we have Captain George Mainwaring:

Sergeant Arthur Wilson:

Lance-Corporal Jack Jones:

Private Charles Godfrey:

Private James Frazer:

Private Joe Walker:

and of course Private Frank Pike:

Even Hodges is available in his greengrocer's coat:

I'm painting a few more accessories and then I shall put on another Dad's Army game.

Five Tribes - 7 January 2016

First play of Adrian's Xmas present - Five Tribes - a very nicely produced Days of Wonder game which is ranked 35th on the Boardgamegeek list.  Simple and novel game mechanisms, lots of choice, and not too long to play.  The four of us employed different strategies - Adrian, James and Andy all specialising to some extent.  David's extremely balanced approach to seeking to score from all the 8 scoring possibilities led to a commanding win: David 163, James 146, Adrian 127 and Andy 86.  I'm sure that this one will get played again.

Nissen with an 'e'

One of the items I bought back at Colours in September was a flat pack Nissen hut.  I completed it in October but forgot to to write it up.

The kit is a mixture of MDF and cardboard.  There were a couple of things that didn't line up perfectly but it was easy enough to put together.

Once painted, the cardboard roof gave a reasonable indication of a Nissen hut but I didn't think it looked good enough for our Dad's Army game.

So I bought some corrugated plastic and created some sheets.

These were then fitted over the roof...

...and then painted up in grey.  I added a door knob, a War Office sign for the door, and a chimney at the back for a stove/heater.  I'm very pleased with the result.  Much more realistic.  I just need to crack on paint my "new and improved" Dad's Army figures so we can have another game!

Alea Iacta Est & Ra - 16 December 2015

A classic double act this evening with firm favourites Alea Iacta Est and Ra.  A solid cluster of scores for the dice game but James pulled ahead with valuable Senate and Fortuna Cards.  Final scores: James 51, David 38, Adrian 36 and Andy 35.

Ra provided the usual laughs and groans, and the unusual situation of both Adrian and David scoring 4 civilisations in the first round.  Final scores: Adrian 51, David 45, Andy 39 and James 29 (20 more than last time we played, so I was happy!).

Java - 25 November 2015

James dusted off Java from the loft as we hadn't played it for years.

It's only on the blog once (from 2009) and that write-up also records we hadn't played it for years... but we seemed to enjoy it that time.

This time our optimisation routines seemed to run an awful lot slower than they did in the previous decade.  James struggled to score as each time he started a city, the other players built it up and collected all the available points.  The lakes seemed to get built in odd places that restricted the development of other cities.  All rather frustrating really.  But as Andy concluded, it wasn't three hours wasted because at least we now know we don't want to ever play it again!

Final scores: David 101, Stuart 82, James 76 and Andy 73.