2nd February 05.....................................................6 Players

This week we got Power Grid to the table after a couple of aborted attempts last month. I am still reeling a bit following yet another week of coming last. I am going through a gaming low as far as results go. I am a happy-go-lucky gamer and my position in a game really does not bother me overly however my ego is a twitching due to the severity of the recession I currently find myself in.

I have had a rethink regarding the layout for the individual game results pages on the internet. I like the idea of highlighting who has won a given game the most but I only ever intended the “Club Cup” for individual games to be a simple affair and I don’t think it was coming over well in the old layout. The results tables now only records the number of victories, if you want to know the number of games played, 2nd places etc you will have to count them up yourself using the bottom table. No longer are second places considered when resolving draws for number of wins. Where 2 or more people tie for number of wins the draw is resolved in favour of the person with the most recent victory. None of this effects the monthly trophy points system which I personally think works well.

This is a poorly exposed picture but it does show the nice new tables we now have to play on.

Power Grid - 150 minutes

We randomly selected 3 territories on the American side of the board and they all fell on the cheap East side. I don’t think the board play was particularly crucial in this session. I am yet to play a game of Power Grid when someone gets badly blocked in, it feels like it is going to happen then a new phase is entered and city spaces open up again. I would say that Dave got a slight board advantage which probably saved him in the region of $20 in connection fees.

The phases were neatly spaced without any hold-ups. I think we got 4 turns in phase 1, 3 turns in phase 2 and 2 in phase 3. The lack of any significant trash plants was of note.

I (Red) kept at the back of the turn order throughout the game. This is generally a good thing. In the 3 player game the resources can be easily stripped if you have hungry plants and my 6 coal requirement was costing me dearly. The coal was completely stripped from the market after each of the later resource buying rounds. I was the “coal man”. I always led in the number of cities I could power and I always trailed with the number of cities I had on the board. I built first on the final turn and thus could not react to Dave placing his 17th city to end the game. I was left looking a bit silly at game end with enough spare fuel to run another round without a visit to the market and plants to power 6 more cities than I possessed.

Steve (Blue) generally shared the lead for number of cities with Dave. Steve was the “Uranium man”. Uranium only replenishes at 1 a time in a 3 player game which kept the fuel fairly pricey. Steve’s other plants were green. On balance I would say Steve paid the least for his resources throughout the game.

Dave (Green) was the “oil-and-a-bit-of-coal man” this game. Oil got cheaper as the game progressed. Dave also required a couple of coal, just enough to give me the official “coal man” a hard time. As is traditional Dave was the one to bring the game to a close by reaching 17 cities. He could only power 16 but had enough money to win the tie breaker with Steve. It was a tense money count at the game end with none of us sure which of the 2 of them had the most money. I think Dave was about 30 Elecros ahead.

Settlers - 60 minutes

Julian brought along his old copy of Settlers. Peter was moaning about his early luck though it did not stop him from winning. Julian went for a “do or die” initial placement relying on a sheep port and his 6 and 8 sheep spaces. I gather the early dice went Julian’s way and with them the robber.

Settlers plays differently with 3 and 4. In a 3 player game, in my experience, there is less trading. Basically if you trade in a 3 player game you are benefiting half the opposition as opposed to one third of the opposition in a 4 player game. Less trading means being self sufficient in all resources and/or having a port is more important in a 3 player game.

If our club was twice the size we could arrange mini Settlers tournaments. They could be spaced over several weeks and slotted in around other games. Now I am dreaming.

New England - 70 minutes

I always seem to be at the other table when this game comes out. I would like to play it sometime soon. I will leave it to others to comment on this playing.

The picture shows the board at the end of the game.

Oh look it is Dave at the top of the leader board!

9th February 05.....................................................6 Players

I am going to miss getting this report out Thursday night, sorry for the wait. Thanks for your company Toby. It would be great if you can join us on a regular basis. Oddly my copy of Word seems to have lost its ability to spell check so this might contain more mistakes than usual.

Next Wednesday the children are on half term and so we can expect Daniel, James, Ben C and Jonathan to be with us. There was a discussion between Steve, Mike and myself on Wednesday about Ben (not Ben C). Ben is a lively lad and well meaning but he has not in the past proved able to settle into a game. We concluded our discussion with the resolution to give Ben a “talking to”, he either focuses for the duration of a game or he is out. I have reflected further on this and I think we are being unrealistic, it isn't going to happen. Ben is going to disrupt the harmony of the club whatever we say. Daniel told me tonight that he would rather not play with Ben. This was the decider for me. Ben should be barred from the room, if anyone can think of a kind way to do this please let me know.

Daniel would particularly like to play Runebound with James next Wednesday though he is also keen on Robo Rally or any of the children friendly games Dave C has. He’ll play with the grownups if James is more comfortable with that.

Settlers - 60 minutes

It was nice to play a game of Settlers at the club for a change. Steve built one of his start settlements on a Sheep port. I wrapped myself around the central 11 space and Mike was bringing in a balance of resources with his start settlements at opposite sides of the board. The think of note about this playing to me was the amount of trading. I am used to practically no trading in a 3 player game and we were trading nearly every pass of the dice. The victory should have gone to Steve, he thought he was safe trading with me because I was on 7 points and he was on 9, he gave me the brick I needed to take longest road off him and with my victory point card I won the game. I had the largest army card at game end.

New England - 70 minutes

I have not played New England for ages. I was indifferent to this game the first time I played but its simple mechanics and the high density of decision making, paced throughout the game, has made this my favourite Alan Moon game. I took a barn and bagged a 4 tile 10 point card on the first turn. The pilgrims showed up late in the game. The boat privilege shared by Steve and Mike was not of consequence this playing. I got a second 10 point card by mid game. Steve and Mike shared the Pilgrim and ship bonuses, I got the barn bonus.

Industria - 75 minutes

I have read that there is an Amun Re vibe about this game.

Eden - 45 minutes

I know nothing about this game.

16th February 05.....................................................11 Players

We ran 3 tables tonight. Two 4 player games and one 3 player. I believe this is our best ever turnout. It was nice to see Toby again and new guy Steve Grainger. I heard Steve mention Settlers and Puerto Rico, 2 of my favourite games, we can certainly arrange for for these to get an airing during the next week or two.

Thanks for playing with the kids Dave and thanks for talking to (big) Ben regarding needing his dad present if he is to be in the room with us.

A few words from Steve Paget from his London hideout:

Just wanted to say hi to you guys. Miss playing with you, and look forward to the weekly session reports. I am working hard down here in London, so no time (or Players!!!) for games and getting serious withdrawal. I hope to see you all soon. Steve P

Pitch Car - 15 minutes

I know this was the game of the night for Daniel. The new tables are just the right size for Pitch Car. There is no need for a rules explanation for this game, just a glance at te picture on the box lid tells you all you need to know. I will bring this game along every time we have the children so they can have their own adult free competition. It is a bit rich for me to put my name down as playing because I was only present for the first lap of the 2 lap race, but I was rubbish so the position is appropriate.

Mississippi Queen – 45 minutes  bgg

Way Out West – 100 minutes  bgg

I did not realise that this was a Martin Wallace game. Since playing Runebound I have got a new interest in Mr Wallace’s creations.

Dave D’s comment:

I like his Train Games, but was not struck by Liberte. I have not tried Way Out West, which may be a good game but, as Dave knows, I tend to steer well clear of anything with a Wild West theme, (be it game, film or whatever). Gordon, please bring Runebound along so we can give it a try, it sounds like a game I might like and I’ve thought of buying a copy myself, but the £40 tag puts me off, Pitch Car too wouldn’t come amiss on occasion, there’s no reason why games should be considered adult free, if adults want to play them.

Amun Re - 100 minutes

I gave a little shuddered of anticipation when this game was laid out ready to play, none gamers would not understand. The reality of play this time did not quiet match my high expectation. I really want to do well at this game, I really try. For some reason I have never improved since my early learning games and I must have played a dozen times. Why am I not improving? Why did Steve P nearly win on his first game a few months back? There is very little luck. The power cards add only a small random element and the rest of the game is automatically balancing due to the auction mechanic. I believe I have a reasonable handle on the relative value of farmers, pyramids, cards and temples. I am sure I have a better handle on these values than a new player or than I did myself a few games back. But I don’t feel my play is improving. Is it just me? Maybe this is a game that takes several dozen games before everything clicks into place. I hope this is the case, I love deep games. Tonight I got my first doubts about my own ability to reach the eureka moment.

This game was a low money game. The camel track only got above 2 on the last round of play. Mike and Steve matched each other during the game. If I remember right they both got 2 temples each epoch and they both got largest pyramid on one side each epoch. Mike got a couple of power cards over Steve and got a 2nd highest money bonus. James showed maturity with his play. I got the most end game money.

Mike’s comment:

I don't think there is a 'Eureka moment' with this game, once you understand the game fully the best strategy will always be determined by the strategies of the other players.  For example, as you say, James played maturely and followed through on the plan I presumed he was using when he bided high on Turn 4 - he had to be going for highest number of pyramids on that bank which would have hurt Steve, my main threat - so I could switch my attention to the other bank.  Had he changed his mind I may have panicked, tried for both banks and a swing of 10 pts gives Steve the game.  I have only one golden rule for Amun-Re, I will always make sure I get at least 1 pyramid in each province by the middle, and 2 in each at the end.  These sets are the bedrock of a reasonable score.

Carcassonne – 45 minutes

I think this is the first time we have ever played the basic Carcassonne at the club. I have the English version of the game with the river expansion. The farmer scoring is more convoluted in the English version. A couple of years ago I played this game a few times over the internet and it gave me an appreciation of what a wicked game it is.

Mike’s Comments:

Believe it or not I have up to now had a good record at this game (played 5 I think, never worse than 2nd) but G & S played it totally differently to anything I'd seen before, and it threw me completely - never seen anybody slap down farmers on turn 1.  I also didn't follow my usual instinct of competing for the 1st promising city when I had the chance (got stung badly in last game I played doing it) and then couldn't pull tiles to build a city of my own.  Worse than that, I committed the cardinal sin that I've seen so many others do and have always managed to avoid myself - build a city 'in' towards other non-city tiles, Gordon then scupper me so I couldn't complete it - game over about half way through!

Industria – 80 minutes

It is the second week in a row this game has been played. I gather that Julian is not keen on the way it plays. Any comments will be pasted into the web entry at the end of the month.

Dave’s comments:

I’m undecided about this; I certainly haven’t sussed it yet as the results show. I know Toby is not keen on the 4 player game, because the fourth player gets no auction income in the first round and this is a view I’ve seen mentioned on the geek. I would’ve thought that the third player in a three player game was in the same position, but may be the problem is not so pronounced. We thought next to try 3, but with all 5 epochs, for some reason the rules as written specify only to play 4, but this limits the value of some of the purchases for the 4th epoch.

Saint Petersburg - 60 minutes

St P is very unforgiving to new players. My guess is Dave finished off with most aristocrats!

Dave’s comments:

Quite right that this is unforgiving by to new players and Julian suffered for being I think the only new player in this game. It was a very close run thing between me & Toby and it was almost the Aristocrats that settled it by 8 to 7, the difference would have been just 1 point otherwise.

23rd February 05.....................................................7 Players

We got to see Peter tonight who came in clutching a Settlers box, a game which unfortunately we did not get the chance to play tonight. We are missing Julian who I hope will be around for next weeks session. Dave Cooper should be about more now the pantomime is over which his family get heavily involved with every year.

We ran 2 tables with 4 and 3 players.

Maharaja - 90 minutes

Nearly a year after I purchased it we finally got to play our first game of Maharaja at the club. This is a real gamer’s game, a mix of mechanics cunningly themed, playable in 90 minutes. It is the very typicalness of the game that has probably kept it off the table for so long. How many 4/5 player 90 minute German strategy boardgames do we need? This one is up against the likes of; Princes of Florence, Puerto Rico and Amen Re none of which get played sufficiently for any of us to plunge their depths. Maharaja is good, almost regrettably it can’t be dismissed as an “also ran”. We will have to add it to the pile and somehow find time to fit in playing it several more times. Ho-hum.

This was a learning game so a few mistakes were made. I messed up on a couple of rules. We should place 4 houses in villages during set up, we get 6 houses in our starting pool, you can build 2 houses in one village (other players passing through pay you two gold) and it is free to conduct the move house action. That is a little more than a couple of mistakes, sorry folks.

We discussed taking onboard next time the optional rule of bidding for roles at the start of the game. We could probably also take on the optional rule of scoring 1 point, during the payout round, for holding the character card related to the city that is being visited by the Maharaja. I would like to use the bidding for roles rule but am not opinionated about the other optional rule, likewise I have no strong views on whether we do or don’t use the 7th character.

Just in running through this game on my own I sussed two things which maybe I should have shared with the group. Firstly getting the central palaces in as many cities as possible is a neat thing to do and secondly getting a house in the village on the roads on the east and west side of the map is also worth doing. Having the lowest numbered character on the first turn is an advantage though in our learning game we dished the characters out randomly so this could not be played for. Using an opening bidding round the character advantages would be evened out.

Guillotine – 20 minutes

I missed out on this month’s trophy because of my result at this little game.

San Marco – 75 minutes

We played a game of San Marco a year or so ago which was recorded as taking 3 hours. This game took less than half that long. Mike clearly dominated things and apparently he got to do the final banishment which resulted in Peter going from second to last. Poor Peter, he comes all the way across Birmingham in the snow, with a cold, plays one game, gets beaten and goes home.

Scarab Lords – 30 minutes  bgg

Mike has taken the trophy in a hard fought month. We got a nice core of players attending all the sessions this month which helped make our for-fun competition a little more exciting than usual.

Average attendance this month 7.5

Trophy points are calculated separately for each game by multiplying the game length in minutes by the number of participants and dividing that figure by a player’s final position. 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 100 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 (600+300+200)/3, players D and E will get (150+120)/2 and player F will get 100 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 effected players and if an arbitrator is required the ultimate decision goes to the player who is least effected by the controversy.