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


 

 

2nd November 05....................................................7 Players

Numbers have been slipping slightly over the last month or so. We got a turnout of 7 tonight. We are missing the company of Tony, Simon, Chris and Steve. I am hoping that Steve Paget will be back with us next month and with Steve we might get Keith join us regularly, so the membership should soon be back up.

 

Me (Gordon),   Mike   and   Duncan

 

Caylus – 165 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Steve Hilton

66

660

Duncan

61

330

Mike

59

165

Gordon

54

0

 

There is a presence about this game that to me screams greatness. This will be the next big gamer game. It is already number 3 on the geek. I suspect it will eventually topple Puerto Rico and claim the top spot. If a killer strategy appears then its fame will be short lived but I can’t see any single way of playing being better than a multitude of other methods. A good online version of the game will be needed to enable the hardcore geeks to get the hundreds of games in that will be needed to check the game play is bullet-proof. It will take many months before we will get to find out if Caylus will make the grade of classic.

 

There was a lovely jockeying for position in the first half of this game. Steve seemed to be falling behind the pack as we entered the later stages and then he kind of changed gear and flew from behind to take and keep the lead. Steve hit on a combination of buildings which work very nicely. Get money from the Marketplace by selling a resource and then take that money to the Church to convert it into Prestige points. In years to come it will probably be a recognised strategy covered at length in numerous heavy weight articles.

 

Mike was managing his workers nicely and importantly he had been the first to see the benefit of the gold mine. Mike almost pulled off a complex last turn which would have seen him buy the Cathedral, the building that awards the most prestige. I was lining myself up to take the statue which was basically the only prestige building I could afford. It would have bagged me 11 prestige points putting me right up with Steve. Unfortunately Mike’s had not factored into his plans that the bank where he needed to purchase gold to build the Cathedral came after his visit to the Architect so he did not have the means to pay for the Cathedral, he could however afford the Statue which he got depriving me of the only thing I could buy. So Mike’s little muddle up took both him and I out of the game.

 

Duncan was developing plans of his own that could easily have seen him take the lead.

 

This game played very different to the game played last week and the 2 games I have played with Daniel.

 

Acquire - 60 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Richard

$46,500

180

Dave D

$46,000

90

Matt

$36,200

0

 

I understand Dave might have forgotten to make himself some minor payment in the game which seemed unimportant at the time but when the final totals were tallied the scores were so close that the little mistake actually cost him the game.

 

St Petersburg – 60 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Richard

94

180

Dave D

86

90

Matt

67

0

 

Matt had a good mown about the rather channelled strategic path this game has and Mike was quick to voice his agreement from the opposite corner of the room. I don’t know another game like it for the need to make the acknowledged correct play every turn in order to win. I accept the game for this and I enjoy the rhythm of play but then I learnt the game when it was new to all of us and the shared group effort to “crack the code” was fun. I would not fancy starting on it now as a new player among experienced players. I disagree with Mike that the game inherently forfeits the last player to buy in the first worker round. Now collecting and more importantly buying a Mistress of Ceremonies within the first 2 rounds could be thought of as a game bust because it near guarantees you victory provided you make no mistakes but it takes careful money management as much as luck to pull that off. A first round observatory is mighty strong but it is very easy to misuse it and turn out cashless, missing out on the flood of workers in the 3rd round. This game brings out the “Strategy Preacher” in me. No one likes to listen to someone who thinks he knows it all. I’ll shut up.

 

San Juan – 40 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Dave D

33

120

Richard

29

60

Matt

26

0

 

Six consecutive wins in a row and counting. Dave has one heck of a record at this game.

 

9th November 05....................................................9 Players

We got a marginally increased turnout tonight with 9 of us split over 2 tables. Caylus saw its third playing in as many weeks. The other table played 4 shorter games.

 

 

Richard,   Dave Cooper,   Daniel,   and   Julian

 

Caylus – 160 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Matt

63

800

Steve H

61

400

Gordon

59

200

Dave D

58

100

Duncan

57

0

 

We have been playing a rule wrong. Sorry folks. The increased cost of putting a worker in a building when one or more players drop out only applies to the neutral buildings and other players buildings. You can man your own buildings always for the cost of 1 regardless of how many people have dropped out. Implications? - The incentive to build your own buildings has increased. I like this rule.

 

Throughout the game I had the feeling Steve was in control. I don’t know why because he was well behind the rest of us on the prestige track all game. On the last turn Steve as predicted came galloping from the back to push his way through the pack on the score track. From out of the last turn muddle Matt emerged ahead thanks to getting a couple of late favours. All but Dave aspired to buy a prestige building but only Steve managed it.

 

Rigidly adhered to whole game strategies is probably not appropriate in this game. You need to be flexible to adapt to what buildings come into play however I don’t consider this a totally tactical game because seeing a plan through also seems like the way to go. I love the tension of this long term / short term dance in a game. I hope I have this assessment right and that it does not emerge that Caylus is best played by simply optimising play on a turn in isolation basis.

 

Duncan threw a lot of money in to bribe the Provost on the penultimate turn which kept the game going another round and stopped Steve taking a sure victory. I am certain Duncan would have liked the rest of us to have helped him with the cost.

 

The pace of play was break neck. This made for an exhilarating experience though I would personally like to slow it down a notch next time particularly on the last couple of turns so I can get my planning right. In my next game of Caylus I plan to make no mistakes. Once I have cut out the silly mix-ups then I will work on the problem of winning.

 

I had a feeling Dave would not like this game because of its similar “essence” to Puerto Rico. Dave said he would like to play again before he pronounces judgement which is probably the best reaction I could hope for.

 

Samarkand - 50 minutes  bgg

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Julian

585

200

Daniel

455

100

Dave Cooper

435

50

Richard

360

0

 

The last time we played this game it took a whopping 80 minutes which was in my mind way too long. At 50 minutes I suspect this was good fun.

 

Pirates Cove – 60 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Julian

39

240

Dave C

28

120

Daniel

27

60

Richard

23

0

 

This was Daniel’s favourite game of the night.

 

Formula Motor Racing – 20 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Daniel

8

80

Richard

7

40

Julian

1

20

Dave

0

0

 

Dave had both of his cars taken out by Richard at the start of the game.

 

Fruit Bandits – 30 minutes  bgg

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Daniel

33

120

Julian

28

60

Richard

27

30

Dave C

26

0

 

This is one of the games Julian picked up from Essen.

 

16th November 05....................................................8 Players

Dave Dudley’s report:

Just a short précis of events on Wednesday. We had 8 + Ben, so separated into 2 groups of 4, while Ben spent sometime playing solo Memoir 44, I don't know how that concluded, but assume he won. It was nice to see Pete again after a long absence, hope its not so long before we see him again.

 

Kogge – 120 minutes  bgg

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Chris

5

480

Steve G

4

180

Richard

4

180

Dave C

3

0

 

Dave brought this one back from Midcon and it seemed to go down OK, some kind of trading game I gather. Scores seemed very low and close, I don't know whether that's normal or not.


Industrial Waste – 90 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Matt

54

360

Steve H

50

180

Dave D

44

90

Pete

40

0

 

Another outing for this one. I think Steve thought he'd won when he closed the game, but I think we were all surprised by Matt (including himself). Missing out on a lot of Innovation cards he had gone for production and growth and ended up with a pile of cash to win the game.

 

San Juan – 50 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Matt

38

150

Dave D

36

75

Steve H

31

0

So my run is over, congratulations to Matt on his second win of the night.

23rd November 05....................................................8 Players

So much to do, so little time. Sorry about the late report. We had a turnout of 8 one of whom was Keith. Nice of you to find the time Keith, I hope to get yourself and Steve travelling in with me regularly in the coming months.

 

We split into 2 table of 4 playing just one game each over the course of the evening.

 

Caylus – 140 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Gordon

72

560

Mike

60

280

Steve Hilton

58

140

Duncan

56

0

 

Yet again we got to play Caylus. Both Mike and I used the bottom row of the favour track to get ourselves prestige buildings. I got to build the Cathedral on the last turn and Mike built the Statue.

 

Railroad Tycoon - 120 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Dave D

73

480

Richard

69

240

Julian

61

120

Keith

58

0

 

What a huge board. The game looked fantastic. I am hoping to get the chance to play soon.

 

30th November 05....................................................9 Players

We got a turnout of 9 tonight comfortably splitting into a table of 4 and a table of 5. We played four of our most played games. I think the only player facing a new game was Duncan and Power Grid.

 

Power Grid – 120 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Gordon

16

480

Dave D

11+

240

Duncan

11

120

Richard

6

0

 

We randomly took out the South East and South West territories on the American map. I did not check at the game end which power plants were not used, I suspect we were missing a couple of big oil plants and at least one of the wind plants was missing. Low plants clogged the market and a few turns went by with little or no purchases taking place. Trash and Uranium were in short supply.

 

Gordon. I only brought coal plants throughout the game. I brought a total of 5 plants. I started with the number 4 coal plant. I took the North West corner as a starting point which I shared with Dave. I stuck on 5 cities for a couple of turns which I powered for just 2 coal. I was completely blocked in and unable to trigger the second step. I later stopped at 10 plants which I efficiently powered with 5 coal. Coal was cheap. I built to 17 to end the game. Twice I got lucky in the plant buying round, picking up good power plants at cost.

 

Dave was initially into oil though he also had a Uranium plant and a wind plant. He got the better of me with board position though my close proximity will have hampered his play. I suspect Dave would have liked the stage two to have been held back as I think he was most efficient at powering sub 7 cities.

 

Duncan was playing for the first time which with this game gives you no chance of being competitive. The end game comes so suddenly a new player will invariably be unprepared. Duncan dabbled in all the various methods of generating power and was the one to trigger stage 2.

 

Richard could not power his trash plant on the last turn thus the low score. It did look like he had the best board position.

 

San Juan - 40 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Dave D

40

120

Duncan

33

60

Richard

32

0

 

Dave is back to winning at San Juan after the shock game against Matt a couple of weeks ago.

 

Puerto Rico – 100 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Chris

50

500

Steve G

=45

188

Julian

=45

188

Matt

39

63

Mike

37

0

 

Carcassonne – 45 minutes

 

 

Score

Trophy Points

Mike

65

240

Julian

57

120

Chris

56

60

Matt

48

30

Steve G

39

0

 

Dave Dudley takes the trophy this month due to a steady Eddie performance throughout the month and notable wins at San Juan and Rail Road Tycoon. The competition hots up nicely when there are 5 Wednesdays in the month. Matt was a meeple’s whisker from taking the trophy. Steve Hilton‘s traditionally positive autumn performance came to an end half way through last weeks game of Caylus. Richard and Dave D were the only people to manage all the sessions. Chris scored exceptionally well from only 2 weeks of gaming.

 

November 05

Trophy Points

Dave D

1,405

Matt

1,403

Steve Hilton

1,380

Gordon

1,240

Chris

1,040

Julian

948

Richard

910

Duncan

510

Mike

445

Steve G

368

Daniel

360

Dave C

170

Keith

0

Pete

0

 

Average attendance 8.2


Revised Trophy Points system introduced beginning of June 05

 

Trophy points are calculated separately for each game, the winners points are calculated by multiplying the game length in minutes by the number of participants. The second placed player gets half the winners points, the 3rd placed player gets half the second players points etc. The last placed player gets zero points. 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 120 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 (720+360+180)/3, players D and E will get (90+45)/2 and player F will get 0 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 affected players and if an arbitrator is required the ultimate decision goes to the player who is least affected by the controversy.