October 06
September 06
August 06
July 06
June 06
May 06
April 06
March 06
February 06
January 06

December 05
November 05
October 05
September 05
August 05
July 05
June 05
May 05
April 05
March 05
February 05
January 05

December 04
November 04
October 04
September 04
August 04
July 04
June 04
May 04
April 04
March 04

Rosliston 06
B&P 06
Midcon 05
Midcon 04

Talislanta

 

7th December 05....................................................9 Players

We got a turnout of 9 tonight again comfortably splitting into a table of 4 and a table of 5. I took a couple of pictures. I am getting rather lazy about putting these reports together and updating the web site. I have been busy with the day job for the last couple of months and my dedication has faltered a little. I am certainly not tired of the games though. Caylus has been an inspiration and even though I have not played Railroad Tycoon I just know it will be a favourite.

That’s better, got the Beatles blasting away.. now lets get these tables put together.

Settlers of Catan – Cities & Knights – 115 mins bgg

I have played Cities & Knights about 9 times over the last 3 years and I recon in a third of those games the barbarian has taken out cities on his first landing and it is a killer if it happens to you. This is what happening this time. The game feels quiet different when the barbarians arrival is awarding victory points rather than hitting the weakest player. Mike and Peter spent half the game with no cities and thus got few flag cards.

In this version of Settlers you can increase you’re safe hand size by using city walls. You can also hold and play up to 4 of the flag cards. All this leads to analyses paralyses for feeble minded gamers like me. At one point in this game I totally lost it and laid my closed hand face up just so I could better sort things out. Not cool. Even with my slow play I still made a couple of mistakes so perhaps I should have taken even longer over those difficult turns.

If anything I would say I had the strongest initial placements though I don’t think there was much to pick between our start positions. The early dice rolls went pretty much 6, 11, 9, 6, 11, 9 which meant nothing for Mike and piles of resources for Richard. The high initial influx of ore and wheat resulted in early city building and that made it hard to repel the barbarian.

Carcassonne - 30 minutes

This was a hard fought game with Richard taking more than his share of cloisters. Mike and I spent the game battling over a city that was never finished. There was more consulting of the tile distribution chart this game than usually happens. Games of Carcassonne are getting more serious and I would say increasingly enjoyable.

Railroad Tycoon – 140 minutes

Dave Dudley has brought a copy of this game so we now have 2 copies in the club which should mean it gets a lot of play. I will be putting together a list of our most played games in 2005 soon. Railroad Tycoon will probably not make this list but it will surely be a contender for a high position on the 2006 list.

14th December 05....................................................10 Players

Mike’s Report:

A healthy turnout of 10 tonight, GoT on 1 table as expected, plus a 3-3 split. Last night before Xmas we usually play some lighter stuff I seem to recall - Dave D, how about bringing Family Business if it's convenient?

Game of Thrones – 135 minutes

Dave’s Comments:

The odd scores are a result of the tiebreak system which actually saw Matt go from first to last in a single move. I won with 5 cities, and the others tied. The tiebreak is your position on the supply track, which is adjusted when a supply card is drawn. Only one was drawn all game (!) which meant that Matt, who had been winning for the last turn or so, dropped to last place because although he had the required provinces, he hadn't been able to adjust the track position. Had the game gone on for another turn I think we would have got a clear winner on the 'gain seven provinces' victory condition; I don't think it would have been me. We are looking to play again next week, although Ben will be along so I'll put in Chaos Marauders.

Vinci – 60 minutes

Industrial Waste – 50 minutes

Carcassonne (with Inns & Cathedrals + Builders & Traders + 2 cards variant) – 60 minutes

Carcassonne (with Inns & Cathedrals + Builders & Traders + 2 cards variant + The River) – 75 minutes

So much fun (and, we thought, more skill involved) that we played it again

21st December 05....................................................15 Players

We had a great turnout of 15 tonight. The children broke up for Christmas today, so with no school tomorrow we got the company of James, Charlotte, Daniel and Ben. The room was at capacity but we decided to stay together and not split and use the downstairs bar. I was so into our game of Traders of Genoa that I barely noticed any other games were going on in the same room.

Traders of Genoa – 140 minutes  bgg

This game pre-dates Puerto Rico yet it has not been played at the club. Julian has been carrying it around with him for months with no takers. I have not been clamouring to learn the game even though I felt sure I would enjoy it. By missing out on this when it first came out it feels like all the strategies have been investigated and the gaming world has moved on to experience the next new thing. I soon put my shallow fashion concerns aside and had fun negotiating my way round the board. Negotiation games offer a very different experience to the normal games we play and this was a most refreshing session.

I monopolised the use of the Cathedral a ploy which I don’t suspect will ever be pulled off again now we know how powerful it is. This was the reason for my big points lead. I also had 8 connected buildings at the game end which gave me a 300 point bonus, this bonus was most welcome but it did cost me 8 actions at an average of £20 per action to achieve. Going for large orders might be a more sure way to get cash.

I look forward to playing again maybe with the same group now we know what we are doing.

Medici – 50 minutes

I keep missing out on playing Medici. Duncan is the “Game Guru” at this game.

Carcassonne – 50 minutes

We have played more game of Carcassonne in 2005 than any other game.

Family Business – 30 minutes

Family Business – 30 minutes

Betrayal at House on the Hill – 75 minutes  bgg

Memoir 44’ – 50 minutes

28th December 05....................................................3 Players

Dave Dudley’s Report:

Just the three of us tonight to round out the year, results as follows:-

Torres – 75 min

This is a game that does not get as much play as it should, every time it comes out it’s a case of remembering what to do.

San Juan – 40 min

Family Business – 15 min

And so the final table for 2005 is as follows:

Average attendance 9.25

Revised Trophy Points system introduced beginning of June 05

Trophy points are calculated separately for each game, the winners points are calculated by multiplying the game length in minutes by the number of participants. The second placed player gets half the winners points, the 3rd placed player gets half the second players points etc. The last placed player gets zero points. All players’ points go back to zero at the end of each month. There are 3 special situations that are dealt with below: 

  1. Points awarded for draws are calculated by averaging the points that would normally be scored for the drawn position and the skipped positions. Eg in a 6 player 120 minute game the results are Player A gets 15 victory points, B-15, C-15, D-10, E-10 and F 5, so there is a 3 way draw for 1st place, a 2 way draw for 4th place and F comes 6th.  Players A,B and C will get (720+360+180)/3, players D and E will get (90+45)/2 and player F will get 0 trophy points.
  2. In games that involve team play, a team is a player, for the purposes of calculating trophy points. Eg in a 100 minute game of Scotland Yard there is one player playing Mr X and 3 players playing the detectives, the winner (either the player playing Mr X or the players playing the detectives) gets 200 trophy points and the loser(s) get 100 trophy points (each).
  3. In some cases the results of a game might be unclear. Eg Games that are not completed or the results are hard to call because of a rule misinterpretation discovered half way through play. In these cases a common sense result will be called. In the cases where the decision is controversial we can reach a solution by the consent of the affected players and if an arbitrator is required the ultimate decision goes to the player who is least affected by the controversy.