3rd November 04.....................................................6 Players

We all played in one 6 player game this week. It was a bit of light relief after the intense game of Amun-Re we played last week (I so like that game).

It looks like we will be playing Taj Mahal online at some point. Unfortunately I am away this Friday and will probably be at Midcon the Friday after. Maybe we could pencil in the 19th, both weekends after this I am away. The run up to Christmas is probably going to be a difficult time for any of us to get into the routine of playing online on a Friday evening. The site is at http://hilinski.net/games/online/tajmahal/.

Betrayal at House on the Hill – 120 minutes  bgg

In this game the players start off all co-operating to search a haunted house until the “haunting” begins and then one player becomes the bogey man and the rest of the players team up to perform a group task while the bogey man has his own task to perform.

In our game Steve H got to be the bad guy. He was gifted a bunch of Zombies and was set the objective of turning us all into Zombies. Our job was to kill him and/or all his Zombie followers.

We all died horribly leaving Steve our un-dead bodies to do what he will with.

I found this a fun experience. The game is beautifully produced, with painted characters, well illustrated tiles and quality cards. There is lots of atmosphere and it played ok with a big group of 6. It might be fun to bring this out again around Halloween next year.

10th November 04..................................................... 6 Players

There were 6 of us again this week. It was nice to see Peter again. It will not be long before we lose Steve P as he goes off for a year’s contract performing in the Billy Elliot London stage production. A recruitment drive has been mentioned. I hope the momentum builds to take the plans from theoretical to actual. I think Mike is contacting the local paper and possibly Weyland Forge. Steve P tells me we don’t even have a card in their club notice board which is negligent of us. Our web site needs some more TLC. The libraries hold records of local clubs and societies. I could not find us listed when I went on the Birmingham Library site. Let’s organise these musings into something structured. Here goes, an action list for increasing membership:

• Get a report in the local paper (Mike)

• Put a card on Waylands notice board (Steve P)

• Update the web site (Dave D)

• Getting our details in the local library and Birmingham Library (Dave C)

• Leave some promotional fliers on the reception table at MidCon (Gordon)

• Set out a display case in the local library (Mike)

I am the worst person to participate in any kind of committee, I once had a personality profile done which said as much. If you think our actions would be better organised if we had a committee style structure, then would someone else please kick it into action. I understand clubs and societies often have posts such as Chairman, new member’s liaison officer, PR officer, treasurer…. This type of structure is not something I relish but perhaps a little bureaucracy would help develop the club and I might get to play Taj Mahal… now that I am interested in!

I will go onto the Taj Mahal web site at 8pm on Friday and lurk about looking for Steve and Mike. If you need to call me use 0121 308 7744.

Half way through the evening Peter “came a cropper” on one of the clubs new chairs.

La Citta – 150 minutes

I took a whole sequence of pictures of the board as the game went on. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the last two turns. They need to be seen quiet large to make any sense of them. If anyone is interested I have uploaded them as a zip file. This file is 8mb. I was brown, Dave blue and Steve pink. I could make a tidier job of recording games using pictures by linking smaller images on the e-mail to larger images from the web space. I will need some feedback on this as it is more effort than I am willing to exert purely for my benefit. Giving the odd game a detailed record seems like a nice thing to do to me.

Steve was immediately in conflict with my one city and soon at odds with my second city. Our early exchanges of citizens were fairly even with nobody really getting the upper hand. The most significant moment of the game in my view was when the people at the end of the first round came out in favour of the white arches which were the only colour that Steve did not take a man from me on. Steve I have just realised looking at the photo that you could have used the water printed on the board instead of the water tile I beat you too. Did you realise this?

Ultimately I got the upper hand over the arms race with Steve. Meanwhile Dave was playing a very quiet game avoiding gaining or losing any citizens for the first 3 turns. Steve and I built third cities on the second to last turn. All cities were scored at the end except Dave’s city in the Quarry corner.

La Citta is a game with a lovely feel. The tension is constant throughout. Steve and I are fans of the game. I suspect that victories are usually sealed within the first couple of turns but this is only evident on analyses after the game and the fun of playing is not affected. I don’t suspect it plays as well with more than 3 players but I would like to try sometime.

New England – 90 minutes

Now this is the second game of New England within a few weeks where the winner has claimed to have won largely as a consequence of using boats. I need to see this in action. I have always found them useless. My games have been 4 players so maybe that makes a difference.

Steve's comments: 

I used ship advantage to decisive effect. Mike nipped past Peter in the final turn with some high bids and stashing, in his barn, a card Pete wanted. Peter led for much of the game.

Peter’s e-mailed comments: 

It was the first time that I'd played this game, so I was learning as I went along. Steve had a good advantage in having most boats (one!), in that he could turn over an extra development card when he bought cards/land. This worked in his favour more than once. The game was close and in the end the difference in points came down to Steve having the most pilgrims (one more than Mike or I) and the most boats (neither Mike nor I ever bothered to buy one!), and Mike having the most barns (one!). A good game and one that I'd happily play again.

Babel – 40 minutes  bgg

Again thanks to Steve for his comments:

Decisive turn was when the Assyrians changed sides and joined my temple – builders.

17th November 04..................................................... 6 Players

Our recruitment drive at MidCon brought in a new visitor. It was nice to have your company Richard. Richard’s Australian accent lifted our normal Black Country mumbles. I should try to attach a sound file to the web site. I am sure visitors from around the world would find the way we speak odd – in an amusing way.

Steve’s comment:

For the record, I mumble in Cockney rather than Black Country.

 We had 2 tables of 3 with a total of 4 games played. There are no pictures because I left my camera in the car.

Acquire – 70 minutes

I don’t think we have ever gone more than a few months between games of Acquire. It always feels fresh to me even though it is the oldest game we play.

I started up 7 of the first 8 chains. Richard and I spent up prior to the first merger. Nobody really came out of the earlier mergers ahead. I got lots of end of game money, as the largest share holder, of the only two chains, at the end of the game.

San Juan – 40 minutes

It was interesting to play this game with a player new to the group. Richard had a noticeably different style of play.

Richard brought a chapel as his first building and put cards aside nearly every round. His chapel gave him 9 points in the end. His mid game library was mainly used with either the councillor or the prospector.

I benefited from being the only person with a Prefecture for several turns which made the role of Councillor very attractive to me. I got down the 3 monuments, the guild hall and the Palace.

Dave did his “black market and 2 Indigo plants” thing but neither Richard nor I were helping produce and I am presuming Dave could not get a library. Whatever, it did not work for Dave this game.

Both San Juan and Acquire were played at a good pace and were well enjoyed by all, I take it.

New England – 60 minutes

This game has had a lot of play recently. The game length is going down as experience goes up. I watched the last 10 minutes and it was very close. In the last round Dave got to place a number 10 building, Mike got to take the final pilgrim giving him the bonus card and Steve took the boat bonus card and built a 6 building. Steve won the tie break with Mike by having more money.

Dave’s comment:

New England I like more and more I play. This time I tried to grab a few pilgrims to gain income, but then Steve got in on the ships. Ships are ideal when you are last in the round, flip the card and either you can use it or you deny it to another player. My final score was 29 btw, I pulled back with that 10 settlement but the problem was that I needed the 6 L-shape that was up in the same turn. I paid 10 to get the settlement and the land to shift the pilgrim so I couldn't get the 6. C'est la vie.

We have collected up a fair amount of data over the last 18 months. For the games that get played more regularly I intend to display the “Club Champ” for that specific game. No clever formula, just a straight count of the number of wins with draws resolved by number of second places. I might migrate this to my web site if it is deemed too in your face. I am aware that the emphasis of the club is to socialise and have fun, rather than to compete. Personally I enjoy playing around with statistics more than writing reports, which I find a bit of a chore, thus my summaries are more comment with stats, than a written account of proceedings. I note that Dave C, Dave D, Mike and Steve can all write with competence. Reports and comments are always gratefully received and though they often miss the e-mailed circular they will make it to the web archive.

I enjoyed your MidCon write-up Dave C. My favourite extract had nothing to do with the games:

Breakfast was excellent as usual, apart from the toast. This was brought round by a waitress and, frankly, you could have made better toast by leaving a stale slice of bread on top of a radiator for an hour.

You had to be there to appreciate the accuracy of this observation. I understand Dave’s report will soon be available to all from the club site

Update:

Dave's MidCon report was eventually published on this site. See link on the left hand bar.

Samurai – 60 minutes  bgg

I have still not played this game. It’s one that Daniel says he likes, he also recons these scores are unusually low. 

Dave’s comment:

Samurai: Gordon, you must try this. Daniel commented that the scores seemed low, I suspect this is because when he played the full scoring didn't come out. Basically you score in three areas. Score best in two out of the three then you win outright. Otherwise, compare your highest total out of the three. If a player does not have a majority in an area then they -cannot win!- (ie: me) The survivors set aside their highest total, then count the remaining tokens. Highest wins.

So: Me 3/3/3    Mike 4/2/1    Steve 4/3/1   

I'm out (no majority) Mike and Steve discard their 4's so Steve won 4 to 3.

Note: Do not underestimate the power of the Samurai on horseback. It is only value '1' but it is possibly the key piece in the game. I certainly played mine too early, Steve played his perfectly, I don't remember when Mike played his so I'm not going to comment.

Steve has won every game he has played so far this month.

Steve’s comment:
Gordon's usual modesty prevented him from stating that he has also won every game this month. Apart from the daft Zombie one where I ate him. He tasted a bit better than that toast sounded.

24th November 04.....................................................5 Players

Mike’s report:

Tonight we had 5 players, one table, two very different games. I'll mail you all a copy of my report for the Halesowen News in the next couple of days.  Let's hope we get a good turnout next week, before Xmas activities start to claim some of us!

Union Pacific – 100 minutes

Having carried it around in his bag for months, we finally got out Dave D's copy of Union Pacific.  From about half way through I thought it would be a two-horse race between Dave D and myself.  I made a nice killing on UP as majority in round 2, but Dave emerged as majority for 3 and 4 and he controlled El Paso so he was always going to be in strong contention.  Managed to damage him slightly just before the 4th score but it wasn't enough.

Dave C’s Comment:

Long time since I've played this, so not displeased with the score. I had a strong holding in red, but never seemed to get the opportunity to take advantage in anything else. I had the chance to take the Wyoming early on, although not a big scorer and was frozen out later on, it could have tipped the balance. My epitaph is still "I should have drawn from the deck."

Der Ausreisser - 40 minutes  bgg