7th July 04.....................................................4 Players

Mike, Steve and Peter are not about next week. Dave C and Tony, will you be able to make next week?

Alexandros – 60 minutes

This was Mike and my second 4 player game of Alexandros. When played with 4 I can not find much positive to say about this game. Well perhaps I can, I fully grasp the rules, the component quality is high and as a novelty the chaos is rather fun. That said this game then ticks all the wrong boxes for me. There is a king maker problem, an analyses paralyses problem, a runaway leader problem and too much chaos. It probably plays differently with 2 or 3 players.

San Juan – 60 minutes

This game is proving to be a real club favourite. It plays comfortably within an hour. We are still exploring the card combinations which can lead to victory. The way Dave D was using 2 Indigo plants an aqueduct and a black market in combination was a new one on me. Mike laid down an early Library but could not manage to pull the cards to work it to its full potential. Steve was getting fists full of cards with his high value production buildings but did not manage to get the Guild hall or any other 6 point buildings. I had an early Prefecture meaning I selected the Councillor regularly allowing me to filter through a large quantity of cards. I was fortunate to get a City Hall and be the only one to 12 cards.

I have been pondering on one aspect of San Juan. I would like to see the game won by a heavy production strategy. It is hard work to play that way because of the need to skip roles between producer and trader and the need to purchase specific violet cards. Gaining your cards primarily via various violet buildings is the simpler route to victory and at the moment it seems to me to be the surest bet. I want to be proved wrong. I like the more elaborate ploy of gaining income by producing crops after all that is the theme of the game. In this respect I see a similarity with Taj Mahal where the simple strategy of playing elephants generally beats the more involved route of setting up a network of connecting palaces. Another game that seems to favour the dumb approach is Ticket to Ride where the player who picks their way through to complete many tickets usually loses out to the player who goes for a couple of, often less congested, long routes. It only seems fair that in a game, all things being equal, the more demanding road should be the one that leads to victory.

21st July 04....................................................9 Players

We did not meet last week. A games night has never been cancelled before, or not in the 2+ years I have been coming anyway. Peter, Steve, Mike and I were all unavailable, Tony was not contactable. This only left the Dave’s who decided not to meet seeing as it was only going to be the 2 of them. The venue was informed and have kindly not asked us for the room money.

Peter and I attended Manorcon over the weekend. Peter did well at Settlers. I went before the results were announced but it is possible he will win the Settlers tournament for the second year in a row! I played in 3 adhoc tournaments. I did poorly at Puerto Rico and Princes of Florence and abysmally at Acquire with under £20k end of game money. Other games I played were; Web of Power, San Juan x2, Ra x2, Ticket to Ride and my two favourites for the weekend Maharaja and Power Grid.

We had a good turnout this week with 6 games played over 3 different tables.

San Juan – 60 minutes

Steve had more cards in hand at the end of the game which won the tie for second place. Mike got a library down by mid game, was producing plenty with the help of his Aqueduct and trading plenty due to his Market Stand. This is a nice combination. Once Mike topped it off by playing the City Hall I thought he had the game. Steve was generally going for production buildings and stuffing an early chapel. He also managed to place a Palace. I was building violet buildings very cheaply with both a quarry and a Carpenter. My early Silver Smelter served me well with Mike and Steve producing and trading so much. I played a Guild Hall which did not fit comfortably with my build violet buildings strategy. I played a late chapel which I got to put 2 cards under. The clincher was the City Hall I placed as my 12^th card.

Having played many games of San Juan where the game seems to end before I have developed my plans I now start my end game play (monuments and 6 buildings) once I have as few as 6 cards down. Well it worked for me this time.

Alexandros – 60 minutes

It is the third time I have played Alexandros. The previous games have been with 4 players. With 4 the game is in my opinion wildly chaotic. With 3 players I still don’t think you have that much control of your destiny but it is a game I am a lot more comfortable with. I really wanted to only take territory if I could score it right away. This is a noble aim which I completely failed to abide by. Steve took quiet an early lead then got pegged back to a virtual stand still with Mike scoring nicely at just the right time to take a comfortable win. I got dragged through on Mike’s coat tails to steal an undeserved second place.

Should you only take territory you can immediately score? Is it wise to build up cards in your hand? Should you wait to take big territories with lots of coloured zones? I am far from settled on how best to play this game. I see that as a good thing.

Guillotine – 30 minutes

Our table finished the evening with 36 beheadings. None of them got away this time. This game never fails to make me smile. What a spectacularly tasteless theme. It all came down to the last victim which we all dearly wanted to top. I managed to get to the lever, first dumping the innocent victim, who was one from the end of the line, on Mike. With the master spy’s head in my basket I won the game.

Saint Petersburg – 90 minutes

From what I could see Tony was well ahead on victory points until the last round or two. In the latter stages Dave D managed to convert his huge income into vp’s and take the lead. Dave D also had 10 nobles. Tony described the game as a typical (modern) Euro game. I know what you mean. St Petersburg is about as far removed from Risk/Kingmaker/Civilisation as they come.

La Strada – 30 minutes

I know nothing about this game except it is by Martin Wallace. I do fancy giving Martin Wallace’s most notorious game, Age of Steam, another shot. I know Mike does not like it and I found it rather fiddly the only time I played it but it is regularly favourably referred to by the world’s big gaming geeks.

Dark World – 160 minutes

I am glad the children were playing this without me. This game is definitely aimed at the pre-teen boy. The older Ben seemed to materialise from nowhere. I gather he was wondering around down stairs and he heard Ben and Daniel’s voices, he came up to investigate and turned out joining in. I did speak briefly with his dad who was down stairs in the snooker room. Ben should be available other Wednesday’s during in the summer holidays. It would be nice if we could recruit new adults with such ease. We can give the kids more structured games to play if they are proving to be too disruptive.

28th July 04...................................................9 Players

Okay I promise the pictures will be sent to you at screen resolution so this e-mail will be a lot smaller than the last one.

The room was buzzing again this week with 9 of us present, 4 of whom were children which did up the volume to a higher level than we are traditionally used to (when do they go back to schoolJ). Actually I do like having the youngsters in attendance. They get so much out of board gaming, especially Becky and brother Ben who have probably not experienced euro games at home.

Power Grid – 150 minutes  Past Results

This was a learning game of Power Grid. We did not get to finish and scoring the game is a bit silly but not scoring it leaves a big hole in the month’s figures. The final scores are based on the number of cities we could all power when time was called.

I was a bit hesitant introducing this game because it is a big commitment in everyone’s time and energy and if the game had not gone down well and we only turned out playing it once then I consider I would have taken time from the games we know and admire, none of which get nearly enough play. So did it go down well? I am not sure, I would appreciate some feedback. Mike questioned if we could realistically finish a game in a session. Dave and Steve seemed to like it. I think it is a brute of a game compared to most of the dainty Euro titles we play and I enjoyed the extra gravity it brought to the session. Power Grid has taken the BoardgameGeek community by storm, it is currently ranked 8th out of the ten thousand games on their database.

Tonga Bonga – 90 minutes

Dave C was kind enough to supervise this game. It seemed to generate a lot of excitement.

Samurai – 60 minutes

Once we were down to 2 children the noise level dipped. Samurai is a famous Reiner Knizia game which I have never played. Daniel was chatting about it in the car on the way home. He wants me to get it which is a good sign that he enjoyed it. Mind you Daniel enjoys anything he wins.

These are the final scores so far for July. I am the winner but no fan fair. I am tending to down play the Trophy Points at the moment because they tend to reflect more on attendance than achievement. August is going to be another month with most of us missing Wednesdays. We really need a month with 4 or 5 of us attending all the sessions to make the system more meaningful. This is not the time to reflect on the point’s scheme. Unless pressured to do otherwise I intend to review the scoring after the monthly archives have reached 12. If we change system before then I think we will have not given it a fair run:

 
Average attendance 5.5</