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December 06 |
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7th June 06.....................................................6 Players Mike’s Report Two tables, two very different game plans - one big game vs. lots of little ones
Mensa Connections (Einfach Genial) – 20 minutes bgg
Some aggressive play here, with some deliberate blocking of others' low score colours (I did a particularly nasty one on Matt which lost him the advantages from the couple of bonus plays he managed), I gambled on a last-gasp complete refresh of tiles which didn't pay off, and Richard squeezed home.
Industrial Waste - 30 minutes
Matt's well-judged game-end force turned the game as Richard fell foul of the automatic accident. As for me, I made a decision early on regarding a possible card retention which, with hindsight, could have been better, and it completely stuffed me. This game is superb but very unforgiving!
China - 30 minutes
First game for Matt of either this or Web of Power, and he sounded very impressed by the amount of game you get in such a short space of time. Richard got a nice central position for alliances, Matt won the game on longest roads, and I....... messed up. Usual problem too, trying to fight too many battles at once. I've not done this recently on BSW, but face-to-face, I just lose it.
Carcassonne (with Inns & Cathedrals) - 45 minutes
Matt was a bit dubious about Carcassonne, he'd become a bit jaded with the standard game, so we threw in the expansion and he was impressed with the extra tactical options, so this should see more plays when he's around. Game was pretty even except for an early 32-point cathedral city Matt and Richard shared at a time when all I could pull were roads (5 in a row!) and it was pretty embarrassing for me from then on (even all 3 of my sabotage efforts ultimately failed), Matt pulled nicely ahead of Richard on farms at the end, my few farms still failed to make it look respectable.
Fury of Dracula - 135 minutess bgg
Have we managed to complete one of these games with the new version yet? An early start with no rules explanation needed might crack it, it's whether there's enough enthusiasm out there. More explorers may speed it up (less thought per player) or slow it down (more group-think time), I can't guess what can be done. Steve I think found it a little dull, no major punch-ups with the Big Guy this time, unlike the game I played.
14th June 06.....................................................9 Players There is a buzz tonight about the weekend’s getaway. For those that don’t know, 5 (6 on the Saturday) of us are stopping over at a chalet in Derbyshire at the weekend. If it is deemed a success I am sure the exercise will be repeated.
Caylus – 120 minutes
Mike was the only one to play the building track on the favour table. He managed to make it work which I have always failed to do. At the end of the evening Steve declared Caylus to probably be his favourite game and there followed a chorus of praise for the game with the consensus putting it over Puerto Rico.
Mike is now the holder of the Game Guru accolade for this game. The award has changed hands a few times, firstly it was held by Matt then Steve H then Dave D. It is fair to say that nobody dominates at this game…yet!
Katzenjammer Blues – 15 minutes
Capitol – 90
minutes
bgg
The only playing of Capitol I have on record was played back in February 2004. This is a fine game that has the misfortune of failing to shine brighter than many other fine games we have access to. Luke took a firm lead in the latter stages, he benefited from getting an extra 2 cards from a territory which was locked up early in the game. My dismal score was in part due to a duff decision in the first round where I bid too much to take the aqueduct which turned out in benefiting Luke more than me.
10 Days in the USA – 20 minutes
This game is proving to be a popular filler. I have taken the time to make out a results page on the presumption it will see more play.
21st June 06....................................................8 Players Mike arrived halfway through the evening. We had no Dave Dudley who is on holiday.
I am just waiting on some comments from Matt then I will post a report on our trip away at the weekend. We all had a good time and will no doubt be repeating the exercise next year. There were a couple of games we intended to play at the weekend but did not get round to. One was Puerto Rico which is why it came out tonight.
Steve Paget and I will not be about next week.
Puerto Rico – 90 minutes
Gordon I am not sure how I feel about this playing of PR. I was the only one producing coffee all game which made me rich. I used the money to buy a factory, the harbours had all gone. I now generated even more money. I brought 2 big buildings by mid game and had no other mission other than to end the game. I made a mess of the last two rounds by trying to be greedy and end the game with 2 manned large buildings with nobody else having a manned large building. I could have pulled it off but it needed a degree of cooperation from the other players which quiet rightly I never received. I actually turned out in delaying the game end rather than accelerating it. I still won but my poor end game spoiled the victory for me.
Steve got the most shipping points with the help of the harbour.
Richard was the only person who did not end with a large building. Tobacco was his cash crop. Given his position I liked his decision to buy an early office. The game did not go long enough to really work his Harbour / Wharf combination.
Matt was diagonally opposite me and I did not pay much attention to what he was doing. I know he took the last of the big buildings and it was the worst one for him only gaining 1 bonus point.
Settlers – 60 minutes
Numbers were evenly spaced around the resources so there were none of the usual shortages. There were periods of wheat drought but nothing out of the ordinary. In a 4 player game someone often gets blocked in and this game it was Steve. Steve could not build beyond his starting spaces. All he had to play for were the development cards. He held 8 in his hand by game end but only one of these was a vp. Only 2 development cards were brought by anyone other than Steve and as luck would have it both of these were vps. Mike could have taken the victory if he had managed to build 4 roads, with 7 on board production points he was generating plenty of resource cards. I beat Luke to a port we were both gunning for in the opening turns of the game.
Tikal – 90 minutes bgg
Luke finished up with 3 sets of 3 treasures. I think this game is good enough to make it into the group of games that we regularly cycle through. I have read that using a timer to shorten player’s goes gives the game an extra zing.
Around the World in 80 Days – 45 minutes bgg
This is Steve’s latest purchase. It seems to entertain well enough.
28th June 06....................................................7 Players Report by Dave Dudley We had 7 people tonight and a new game supplied with a request for a review, so we split into a 3 and a 4 and each group had a try at it, the experience being different for each group.
Evolution - 60 minutes bgg
The first game of the evening, which went on way too long, twice a card came up causing the trails to be reduced by 2 and it was with the second of these, drawn when I was at the end of my track waiting for my turn to win, that we decided to finish it so as the other group could get to play.
The game was Evolution and some discussion went on at the beginning of the
session expressing surprise if the name had not been used before. A check
on the geek had revealed 3 games of this name including this one, although
other than a description, there is no info on it.
In the game you represent a life form which you have to have advance through 6 stages of evolution. The game equipment consists of a central hexagon (with a volcano in the centre and sets of 3 rocks at the edges which are the start positions for the players) together with 2 decks of cards, playing pieces and a red plastic cone representing a volcano which can be moved around. On each turn the player draws an evolution card, which will be either one representing an evolutionary stage, a volcano (which allows him either to move the mobile volcano or to have any one volcano erupt causing any piece adjacent to it on the same card to devolve by one stage) or a thunderbolt which makes him draw from the thunderbolt deck potentially causing grief usually to the drawing player but possibly to the others also. If a Volcano or Thunderbolt is drawn the players draws again after the card has been resolved until he gets an evolutionary stage.
Each of these cards represents 1 of 8 possible stages and will have 3
terrain types on it including such rocks, swamps and volcanoes. The player
then has the option to place it in his own trail or in that of one of his
opponents or discard it. Cards are placed in a trail in a way so that the
trail is ordered from low to high, that is if a trail already contains
cards numbered 2 & 4 for example, the card would be placed between the
two. If a card of the same number is already in the trail it can be
replaced by the new card, if the trail is already 6 cards long then it can
not be extended further. There are a couple of reasons, why a card would
be placed in an opponents trail, first it may have disadvantageous terrain
and secondly if a card is placed of lower number than the card where the
opponents playing piece is located, he is forced to devolve back to the
card just placed. Some cards have caves and oases on them, and these cards
are not necessarily played by the drawing player, but each player tries to
predict the number of the next card drawn from the deck and whoever is
nearest gets to play the card.
Following card play, the player may move his playing piece one place forward or sideways and then may move the mobile volcano; play then passes to the left. To win a player must form a trail of 6 cards and advance his piece to the highest card. He must then remain there until his next turn.
My view is that this is a potential filler game, but has some problems, chief of which are some of the Thunderbolt card effects, which can cause the game to drag on too long. At 20 minutes the game is OK, but at an hour definitely not. I also was not convinced by the allocation of premium cards, by guessing the next card up. Although, in theory, the prediction should get easier as the game goes on due to having seen the cards already drawn, in practice it seems like a random distribution of a card that has just been drawn at random, so you might as well just give the card to the players who draws it.
A reply to our comments from Tony Messiou the designer: Thanks indeed for the testing and the comprehensive review from yourself and other players. Many incisive and fantastically useful comments . It was a lot more than I expected.
Evolution - 30 minutes bgg
The second game seemed to play better, although I don’t really know the details, but I still think 30 minutes is perhaps a shade too long.
Industrial Waste - 60 minutes
A longer than normal game of Industrial waste, Steve got into money trouble early on, due to innovating and then not being able to get an order card, so meaning he ended up with a double loan. Dave C moved ahead on the growth track but was behind in innovation so did not want to bring the game to an end. When I ended the game I thought I was well ahead having maxed out all 3 innovation tracks, but Dave was able to produce 2 orders on the last turn, gaining a lot of money leading to the close result.
New England - 60 minutes
China - 35 minutes
Final table as follows, the trophy goes to Mike.
Average attendance this month 7.5 |
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