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December 06 |
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4th October 06........................................................15 Players We had first time visits tonight from Gordon Benson and Lewis. I didn’t think we would get another Gordon join us which gives me a dilemma over whether I should go through recording everyone with the first letter of their surname after their first name just in case we have others of the same name join the club at a later date. Of course the first time we get two people with the same first name and same initial then we will have to think again. Off the top of my head we currently have multiple; Dave’sss, Steve’ssss, Richard’sss, Mark’ss, Jon’ss and Ben’sss.
Problems associated with increases in the size of the group are providing something pleasant to ponder over. The elder membership have been mulling over issues including; considering larger venues, handling increasing game data and what best to do with our money mountain of a kitty. If only I had such satisfying things to consider within my business life.
Mike: I may be wrong, but I believe that's the first time outside of school hols that we've filled four gaming tables - for the two Dave's and I, we've come a long way since the only games we could play were 3-player......
Luke: Man that is a LOAD of gaming you lot managed! Sorry I couldn't come but this week's evenings have been a bit busy for me
On the plus side a student got in touch with me last week - he lives about a 3 minute walk from my house - and so we got together Tuesday night and he taught me Hive (which is truly brilliant) as well as playing Samurai, Memoir '44 and Elchfest. He's interested in coming over in a couple of weeks' time - and he's ANOTHER Richard.
Dave C: Samurai hasn't seen the club for a couple of years, I'll bring it along. After a break from SoE and playing some lighter stuff, I'd like to try Age of Steam again; the Irish board has never been blooded and the English board is good. Get enough players we could also try the mega 2-board Omaha Beach from M'44.
Steve H: I have to be the Germans – it’s tradition.
Matt: I hereby issue a formal challenge to take on anyone at Hive. It's one of my very few 9 rated games on the 'geek and it's fantastic.
Elasund – 160 minutes bgg
I really enjoyed this game tonight. We were playing at a slow pace as we got comfortable with the rules. There was a competitive atmosphere which kept the game exciting. Your points go both up and down during the course of play and I think we all had the lead position at some point in the game. I was in dead last for the first couple of hours then I snuck through taking the last of the big 2 vp buildings, placing a vp on the wall and taking windmill spaces to give me yet another vp all in one turn. I then had an agonising couple of rounds sat on 9 points while the others plotted against me. My final cube was placed in the church to give me the win.
Vinci – 75 minutes
Industrial Waste – 55 minutes
Struggle of Empires – 180 minutes
This game had been pre arranged and got started before most of us arrived. This proves it can be completed on a Wednesday evening.
Dave C: SoE was a taut, well fought out game. There really wasn't a runaway leader; we all tried different strategies and combinations of tiles, showing how versatile the game is. Steve suffered from a joint attack in the Baltic States from Richard and Julian at the end which he would have been hard pressed to defend; in hindsight perhaps Julian was left alone too long in the Mediterranean States and I really should have done more in the Ottoman Empire. Steve and Richard lost on the Unrest count at the end (Richard nearly had the Russian Revolution somewhat early)! Definitely in my top ten games, probably my favourite Martin Wallace game.
Caylus – 115 minutes
Nobody used the building track. I think most of the favours went on the vp track though there was a diversity of strategies on the go.
Matt: Cracking game of Caylus. Paul on the block track and money track, Mike on Money and me on VPs. Gordon shipped a single batch all game and built and abused the bank and the church. Never seen so much gold in a game! if Gordon and Paul hadn't used gold to ship batches in the final turns we would have run out. Very good fun- one turn less and I would have won. I ran out of money, unfortunately.
Ra – 60 minutes
It has been too long since I last played this game.
12th October 06....................................................10 Players There are only 2 games I rate a 10 on the geek, Settlers and Ra, and I got to play them both tonight. I don’t pretend to rate games completely objectively. My rating of a game is arrived at by a combination of my respect for the design and the fun I have had playing. The fun is often influenced by factors which might have had little to do with the game itself.
Settlers is the game that brought me into the hobby. I discovered it in a period of my life when the flowers smelt sweet and the birds sang like angels.
My high regard for Ra is influenced by my good results at the game. It feels like the game was made for me. I don’t pretend to understand my mind. At most things there are others who run circles round me but there is a specific type of thought process I am good at, I can’t define it exactly, a kind of fuzzy thought. It just happens that Ra highlights this specific trait and it makes me feel nice about myself.
Dave C: Agree totally on Ra, one of the best games I own and one I'd never say no to playing. Even if it looks like you're doing badly, there's always the chance you can turn it round.
Ra – 60 minutes
First Epoch – Ra was very slow in coming. This epoch went on and on. I was fortunate to be the last in, giving me the pick of 2 full racks. I got a run of pharaohs that was to get me the 5 point bonus every round. I also scooped 4 different civilizations. I was about 10 points ahead of everyone at this point. Second Epoch – Again Ra was slow in coming. We were beginning to question if some of the Ra’s had been taken out of the bag. We all scored near enough the same this time with Richard slipping a bit and Steve gaining a bit. Final Epoch – Ra’s finally started coming out the bag with 3 at one point being drawn in a row. Steve had managed to get 5 of the same monument which scored him well and he also got the sun bonus. A game that looked like having a run away leader turned out in being close at least for first and second places.
Vinci - 60 minutes
Cartegena – 30 minutes bgg
Hive – 50 minutes bgg
Web of Power – 45 minutes
This game went down very well with both Lewis and Paul enjoying their first playing.
Settlers – 60 minutes
I had arguable the best board position following the placement of initial settlements with plenty of space to expand into. Paul got a city down on his 3 turn which put him in a strong position. Lewis actually led in points for most the game because he got both the largest army card and the longest road card. The longest road was taken off him by Paul who managed to win the game by pulling a vp from the development card deck. I was caught out by the sudden game end. I would happily have gone on to play the game another 3 or 4 times but unfortunately it was gone 11.
Tigris & Euphrates – 60 minutes
T&E was played twice using Steve’s German copy of the game.
Matt’s comment: I thought it was a good game, especially so the second time. The games had different feels to them, the second being a bit cagier than the first.
Tigris & Euphrates – 90 minutes
Dave C’s comments: A game of Tigris finished in 60 mins? I'm impressed. I'd like to read a game report of how that went so quick as most games I've played are pushing 90-120 mins
Matt’s Comments:
Power Grid (France) – 125 minutes
Steve H was the only player to produce nuclear power and trash fuelled power. I don’t think any of us would normally buy both the number 11 2 city nuclear plant and the number 17 2 city nuclear plant but then this was France. By doing so Steve kept his monopoly and the 4 city nuclear plant which came out in stage two was ignored by everyone because with 2 Uranium getting burnt every turn nobody wanted to make that 3. So Steve kept the monopoly. There was a big bidding war on what proved to be the final turn when both Dave and Steve wanting a 6 city trash plant. It went to Steve for 72 in the end over twice its marked value. Never has anyone bid so far over the marked price for a plant. It proved to be the winning move. Very gutsy play.
Matt was the only one of us with a green plant which is probably why the fuel market took such a hammering. Matt’s opening plant was the number 3 oil plant which I think he paid 5 for.
Gordon. I played the same way I always seem to play. I was on the lookout for big coal or oil plants and nothing else would do. I spent too much time being paranoid as to what Dave was up to. My opening plant was the number 4 coal plant which I paid 6 for. My note to self is “be more flexible”.
Dave D was the one most hurt by Steve ending the game. Though Dave came last he could have won if he had got the 6 city trash plant he went to war with Steve over.
Dave’s comments: I went back and did the calculations for the Power Grid game after and I calculate I could have spent an extra 10 or so on that last auction and finished the game, not as much in hand as I thought when musing at the club as I was then working and the bizarre premise that 8 x 15 = 60 rather than 90. It would have been interesting to see how far Steve would have gone. The moral of this is of course that I should have been thinking about this and doing those calculations before I dropped out of the auction, rather than after the event. Roll on the next game of Power Grid. I think that is the first Power Grid game I’ve played that finished before Step 3 started.
Steve’s comments: Winning Powergrid was the best buzz I’ve had at the club for a long time, particularly in the manner of the win. My mental maths isn’t good enough to add up exactly what I needed to win, so I basically went on instinct. As it turned out, I had ten bucks spare, but I kid you not, 74 was my limit (and 74 not 72 was the winning bid), because that left me with a round 200. One more buck from Dave and I would have backed down. It was only after I got that plant that I realised my proximity to 3 vacant areas in Paris would give me a chance to end it. The main thing I’ve learnt (too slowly because this has been my only win. ED - You forgot about your win of the first ever game in July 04) about Powergrid was Gordon’s tip about not buying too many plants. One tactic I followed which worked well was to mess with other people’s map positions (Vinci style!) and get a good one for myself, which I think worked out beautifully this time. Going 4th at the beginning does help I think.
10 Days in the USA – 30 minutes |
