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December 06 |
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5th April 06.....................................................7 Players It was nice to have Anna join us again, not only is she a she but she returned after visiting us previously so she knew what to expect. This is most heartening.
Caylus – 150 minutes
Dave D and Luke broadly speaking did not build up the village but gained vp’s via favours earned through castle building and jousting. Steve took money via favours and converted it to gold via the bank. He finished with 12 gold for a mighty 36 point end of game bonus. With a slight tweak to his worker placement on the last turn he would have gain a couple more points and beat me to second place. Gordon. I built a dozen buildings and took the few favours I earned as vp’s.
For me this was the most settled game of Caylus I have participated in. We seemed to be conducting ourselves a lot better than we have done previously. I spent the early game just playing for the moment with the emphasis on building up my money ready for later in the game when new buildings would hopefully allow me to spend it more productively. I did not fall into a long term strategy until we were about a third of the way into the game. I placed a couple of the stone production building that allowed you to claim a resource should someone else use the space. This resulted in others using my buildings to gain many resources while I got a few leaving me behind in cubes for fighting over the castle thus I built more buildings and so I got court up in building every turn to the end of the game. This was not a bad thing and could have resulted in me winning had Dave had more competition in the castle.
I believe Steve had a similar structure to his play ie. Initially playing simply to optimise that turn and later following a strategy that events had channelled him towards. By being the only player to peruse the money track, Steve was better off than the rest of us and the most efficient way to convert the money to vp’s was via the bank.
I suspect that planning to never build a building and putting all ones effort into castle building and jousting is probably the surest way to win at Caylus providing nobody else is doing the same. You still have to conduct your placements carefully. Competition can easily mess with this plan. As we know there are loads of ways to play this game and many can end in victory what I am saying is that I consider ignoring building buildings and concentrating on favours is likely to win the game if unopposed, kind of like taking provinces in Taj Mahal will usually lead to victory if unopposed. Naturally these mainstream strategies are normally opposed.
Steve advocates playing Caylus turn at a time and ignoring whole game plans. I agree with this though the game has a way of directing you down your own path as things progress.
Settlers of the Stone Age – 70 minutes
These results do nothing to change my opinion about this game having a runaway leader problem.
Through the Desert – 30 minutes
I have made up a results page on this game. With both Luke and Mike having a copy it should receive some more play over the course of the year.
Carcassonne – 30 minutes
I think the Inns and Cathedrals expansion was used with each player getting a big meeple.
12th April 06.....................................................11 Players Our normal room upstairs was being used for a committee meeting so we set up camp in the downstairs bar. It was a novelty to both start and end our session with games of pool. With the shutters pulled down, closing off the bar, we were quiet private. There was some noise from the organ at the old folks do in the big meeting room. The children were providing an excited buzz. It all added to the atmosphere.
I have decided not to go to Baycon this year though I will try to get to Beer & Pretzels.
Alhambra – 105 minutes
This game of Alhambra went on a little longer than usual. There are some really nice decisions to make during the course of this game. With 3 players there is a lot more chance of the tiles you want sticking around while you collect the cards to buy them with.
I did find the game a little sombre rather like the game of Tikal I played a couple of weeks ago.
Guillotine – 20 minutes
Puerto Rico – 75 minutes
This was a quick game of PR. I know Chris was trying to concoct an early game end to try and peg back Richard. Richard has been consistently competent at this game with 6 recorded games, 3 wins and 3 second places.
Ra – 45 minutes
Matt came out the first 2 epochs with no additional points to the 10 he started with. He scored highly in the last round with lots of monuments. These are low scores so I guess there most have been some funny business happening with the tile draws, lots of Ra’s, no floods or whatever.
Dungeons & Dragons – 160 minutes bgg
Daniel, Ben and John were the adventurers and Dave C was the dungeon master. The children really enjoyed this game and they are keen to play again.
19th April 06.....................................................6 Players We had a strangely small turnout tonight with no Dave Dudley, Mike, Richard, Luke, Dave Cooper and Steve Hilton. Matt and Mark thought they might be in for a night of two player games until I arrived late at 7:45 with Steve Paget, Daniel and John.
I will probably not be around myself next week.
Antike – 130 minutes
Mark Stretch went for Arm as his
Matt was new to the game. He brought ships early. He was largely left untouched in the bottom right corner. It was only Matt’s lack of “wheels” which prevented him from demolishing one of Daniel’s temples at the end of the game giving him the victory.
Gordon. I was the only player to start on gold. My early turns went gold, marble, knowledge (Market), temple (marble), marble, temple (gold), gold, marble, knowledge….I believe I would have gone on to win the game in a boring none aggressive way by taking 3+ of the development cards, 1+ temple cards, 1+ king cards and 1+ sea cards. I was stopped by my aggressive neighbour; Mark, and by my lack of appreciation of how quickly the king cards get grabbed in a 6 player game.
Daniel. Played the back and forth between marble and temple in the early turns until he got a temple on each of his starting spaces. He suffered from not having a sea front to bid for the sea territories card. I considered Daniel’s play to be most mature especially considering he has only played once before. Daniel approaches any game with the expectation of winning giving this 13 year old a big presence at the table.
Steve P had probably the most difficult start position, out in the middle of the board, land locked, with Mark the Conqueror as a neighbour. If the call to arms had not happened so early in the game Steve would have had another point or two from the progress cards.
Young John was our second first time player and he went with the instinctive play of building up a force to defend his corner of the board. Perfectly reasonable play in most games but Antike is a game that awards expansion and staying tight is not the way to win.
I admire Mark’s play. It has given me more appreciation of the game to know that there is another way to play the early turns than bouncing between marble and temple. I had though that there was no point in hostilities until the progress cards had all been taken. I do think Mark’s method of victory would be a lot harder to mimic within a group who had experience of this game being won by aggressive early expansion.
Note to self – The cards for owning 5 territories disappear very quickly in a 6 player game.
Richard Drewsbury comments: Early expansion is one of my favourite ways to play - the Barbarian Horde Technique. Combine it with a ploy to grab Iron provinces - especially those where opponents helpfully build a city that is easier to capture than to build from scratch - and an early Wheel advance (preferably for 3 gold - you can usually rely on one of the marble-gold-temple-advance players to have paid the premium for you) allows you to bound from Iron to Iron. You should have a way to grab 15 or more territories early, and keep the aggressive momentum up well into the middle game. Never build a temple, and ignore marble (and even gold) unless it brings a VP you couldn't get elsewhere. When the forward momentum slows (usually coinciding with the last King being taken), then you run into trouble - unless you have some way to take the last couple of VPs (temple-trashing if they are close; navy building if you have good sea access).
One of the keys to success that I found was to dominate Iron - as I say, preferably by taking someone else's - as it allows you to "waste" legions killing any that anyone wates time recruiting. If I get 4 more Iron than anyone else every time I choose the action, I don't care if I lose 2 or 3 wiping out a force that MIGHT become a threat later.
I've found that the best passive counters are Monarchy& Democracy, an placing temples either out of harms way, or on iron sites close to the border to mount a spirited defence. Monarchy and Democracy makes taking cities cost more to take than they "save" in building resources, whereupon the lack or gold & marble can slow the barbarian down. A more aggressive counter is to target some of the barbarian's iron provinces as soon as he starts to get going, as once he loses the ability to recruit big, he loses the ability to attack big too.
Like any Antike strategy, you need to make best use of turn-order, rondel step, and board position.
Gordon: You describe exactly how Mark played. Possibly this aggressive strategy works best with a full complement of players?
Richard again: Mark's played before :)
But no, it will work with just three or four players just as well. The ey to ANY strategy in Antike is making sure you get VPs faster than anyone else - sometimes that means changing tack mid-game, and it often means doing something to slow down or interrupt opposing players' plans. Naked aggression - where you take over cities belonging to others - will almost always achieve the latter, unless you are suckered in to taking cities that they no longer need.
26th April 06.....................................................6 Players Dave Dudley's report: It was just 6 again this evening and the group split in to 2 threes.
Acquire – 90 minutes
I gather that the winner of this was fairly obvious before the end, but it was close for second place
Industrial Waste - 50 minutes
I watched the end of this one and the playing time seems a bit long for the stage it was in when Mike ended it, that said there was apparently a shortage of Order and Growth cards coming out, so that would have had an effect. Mike was well ahead of Steve and Matt on the growth track and, I think he was probably premature in bringing an end to it as there was certainly a chance of catching Matt for second place.
Beowulf - 60 minutes bgg
I brought this along to give back to Gordon, having failed to notice his comment about not being around this week (this also explains no pictures as I would have brought my camera), Steve was stuck with a couple of misfortunes, while I ended up with the double wound in the big battle at the end, giving me a hefty penalty. Chris played through steadily and got the no wounds bonus, ending up winner with Steve and me a long way back in joint second. Unanimous view seems to be game was OK but no more.
Medici - 40 minutes
Close for first place with me some way behind, after a quick refresher.
So the final table is as follows, scores are low this month, which would be due to lower than normal attendances, I think everyone missed at least one week, I owe my win to Caylus and Alhambra at the start of the month.
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first action. I have not seen this done in any of the games I have played
in. Mark expanded to take 15 territories gaining 3 of the king cards. He
did not build a single temple all game and he did not gain a single point
from the progress cards. He gained a couple of points by knocking down
temples and a couple of points for getting up to 14 occupied sea
territories.