December 06
November 06

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 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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Richard B

9

60

Mike

8

30

Matt

7

0

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Matt

44

90

Richard B

38

45

Mike

35

0

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Matt

37

90

Richard B

36

45

Mike

28

0

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Matt

147

135

Richard B

135

68

Mike

98

0

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Dave D (Drac)

Draw

203

Steve H

Draw

203

Richard C

Draw

203

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Mike Black

68

600

Steve H Red

58

300

Richard B Oran

56

150

Richard C Blue

45

75

Matt Green

42

0

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Richard B

7

75

Steve H

2=

22

Richard C

2=

22

Matt

2=

22

Mike

1

0

 

Capitol – 90 minutes bgg

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Luke

55

360

Dave D

38

180

Steve P

34

90

Gordon

18

0

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Luke

Won

80

Dave D

Lost

20

Gordon

Lost

20

Steve P

Lost

20

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Gordon

+47

360

Steve H

47

180

Richard

41

90

Matt

35

0

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Gordon

10

240

Mike

8

120

Steve H

7

60

Luke

5

0

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Luke

=111

203

Steve P

=111

203

Duncan

90

0

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Steve P

73

180

Matt

78

90

Duncan

81

45

Richard

90

0

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Dave D

=

90

Steve H

=

90

Dave C

=

90

 

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.

Dave C’s Comments:

Thanx Dave; that's a good review of the game mechanism which I'd like to use in the final review.

I like the theme of Evolution and most of the mechanics; however I agree, it should be a short game. Possible fix:

 

  1. One turn only through the Evolution Deck and a simple point score for how far you have evolved. This would give some reason to evolve through all those volcanoes etc.
  2. Double move. Move twice, or move once and move Volcano.
  3. May move, but mandatory Volcano move (not optional) to a vacant rock
  4. The Auction: Make it a closed, simultaneous blind bid, all used tokens are discarded. However; Era card can only be replaced with a similar card (eg: a Cave card can only be replaced with a Cave or a Waterhole card 0. Thus, you can only bid on a limited number of cards; also makes the Thunderbolts that discard tokens nastier.
  5. Thunderbolts: Discard when drawn (out of the game). The reshuffle card is still used but simply recycles itself. Rem: this card is beneficial; it allows the reclaiming of tokens for use in the auction and a free move for all players.

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.


The game is not really intended for gamers as it has it doesn't have deep strategic play ,however, I will look at the comments and see what can be done to improve matters for the future as i would love gamers to enjoy it also. There is a hobbyist version in progress where such comments will be taken in to account as far as possible.
Time of play is an issue and more of an issue with more players, It is a quirk of the game than as more cards are laid in paths, the number of action cards left in the pack and their effects increase in relative terms; hence more "knock-backs" and extended play time. I have addressed this on the website play guide as an "option for a shorter game", whereby each time the evolution pack is exhausted a thunderbolt action card is removed (then the pack is re-shuffled as normal) . Similarly with 5 to 6 players both a thunderbolt and eruption action card are removed each time the pack is exhausted. In my defence I did have this sort of option in the rules originally but was advised by a top game consultant not to have them in! I should have stuck to my guns here. I am not sure about 20 minutes being a suitable target play time but certainly 40 minutes or so would be my aim.


Yes I agree some images could be a bit larger . The problem was that of relative size ( skulls for example would start to look as large as volcanoes) as it was we made such images larger than real scale. The basic philosophy was to try to create the feeling of a real world.


Auction mechanism. Criticism accepted, any suggestions for alternatives that would be more suitable to gamers (for the hobbyist version....using same components!) would be gratefully received. The main aim of current mechanism was player interaction. My games consultant actually advised on all cards being competed for by auction so perhaps some inevitable differences of taste here. I originally looked at the idea of player with incorrect bids losing all the tokens used (a bit like poker bets) but decided against that as I didn't want younger players getting too far behind.


Although this has been the most critical review(s) I have had it has also been the most useful, so I really appreciate it . Of course the problem is now for me to try to improve matters . Again many thanks to you and all the other reviewers.

 

Evolution - 30 minutes bgg

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Mike

1st

120

Richard B

2nd

60

Duncan

=3rd

15

Richard C

=3rd

15

 

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

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Dave D

75

180

Dave C

73

90

Steve H

57

0

 

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.

Dave C’s Comments:

One of my favourite games; so many strategies open. I tried the money route ( get your factory up to 19 and make lots of money for many turns) but suffered because I couldn't get the pollution down as quick as I would have liked. I went Yellow for a few turns and lived dangerously (but held a Bribe just in case); eventually I discarded that and held on to a Production to try for the double at the end. With hindsight; I should have ended earlier (which I could have done)' but I thought Steve had more money than he actually did. I finished with two raw materials unused which had cost me €5; this cost me the game. Ce'st la vie.

New England - 60 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Richard B

37

240

Mike

27

120

Duncan

27

60

Richard C

24

0

 

China - 35 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Richard B

39

140

Duncan

38

70

Mike

35

35

Richard C

32

0

 

Final table as follows, the trophy goes to Mike.

 

June 06

 

Trophy Points

Mike

1,025

Richard B

898

Steve H

833

Dave D

673

Luke

643

Gordon

620

Steve P

493

Matt

405

Richard C

293

Duncan

190

Dave C

180

 

Average attendance this month 7.5