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Rosliston 06
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Talislanta

7th September 05.....................................................8 Players

There were just the 8 of us tonight probably due to the England Ireland football match. We split into 2 tables of 4. I left before the other table had finished so Mike collected the scores together and e-mailed them over with comments.

There are two points of discussion buzzing around at the moment:

Saturday session – Mike has proposed we meet up one Saturday to play longer games. Civilization has been suggested. If only a few are interested this will be at someone’s house. If more people are interested than can comfortable fit round a dinning room table then we have been given the provisional go ahead from Barry to meet at the Conservative club though the bar will be closed from 3 to 6.

Ladies Night – Most women would rather be anywhere else on the planet than with us lot on a Wednesday night playing boardgames so this could be a bit tricky to pull off but I think it would be a great evening if we can do it. Matt’s better half is apparently up for it and I think Mr Stretch has a willing partner and then there is Lisa Cooper. Both Karen and Beth have braved our company in the past and survived the experience. We could make it the half term week so the kids are about as well? If it looks like we will get a big turnout we could ask Barry about the availability of the function room though I think this will mean we will need to make it a different night to Wednesday due to the old timers weekly knees up.

I finally got round to ordering the web name www.halesowenboardgamers.org.uk . To do the job properly I should book web hosting services so I can get the site off my company space and I can upload pages that branch off the main name such as halesowenboardgamers.org.uk/august05.htm. The hosting service which includes FrontPage extension support is too expensive at £80 per year so we will have to go as we are with halesowenboardgamers.org.uk directing to my home page to be automatically replaced on the address line with www.vectordisplay.co.uk/gameshome.htm. There is also an option to get mail addressed to name@halesowenboardgamers.org.uk but again this costs so I have not gone for it.

When I originally set out doing the session summaries Dave was running the club site and I saw my contribution as more of a personal gaming blog. As time has gone on the session summaries have become the club site and the personal first person approach might be seen as odd. I propose to do a cover page that will go in front of my existing home page and that will be written in the third person with meeting times and directions. I would be delighted if someone else took on the task of writing the opening piece. I will format it and add a team photo. Ideas are welcome. As long as Dave Dudley is happy with it I would like to use his e-mail address as the point of contact. There is a good example of an introduction to Euro games by Jeremy Avery:

http://www.geocities.com/yahugaming/German.html

…I have just read through the piece Dave has on his site which I think might have originally appeared on Mike’s old site and it reads fine though it needs up dating.

We could also have a potted gaming history on the founder members. Press on the history tab on the Dallas Games site to see an example:

http://www.dallasgames.com/

All this would be best done with a sense of British tongue in cheek humour in contrast to the yanks evangelising. The point is to attract new members.

Power Grid – 140 minutes

I don’t believe we have any other game that can rival the passion that Power Grid generates. We go to war over this game.

Dave got an early coal plant and later went into trash. Coal was the first resource to suffer at the market with more going out than going in. Dave took us into stage 2 because he had relatively high fuel costs sat at 6 cities. Dave could see the game was likely to end beyond his control, he had one less capacity than myself and Matt so he could not make first or second place so he chose to deprive Steve of Trash by over stocking and thus guaranteed himself 3rd place. Now that is a true gamer, never stop fighting, this is why we enjoy playing with you Dave.

Steve dabbled with every type of resource during the course of the game. He had a nice central board position. On the last turn Steve was taken right out of contention when Dave left him one trash short of firing his 6 city trash plant.

Gordon. I stuck with coal throughout the game. I did not do this as a plan it is just that I was scared of anyone else getting coal plants and stripping the market. On the penultimate turn I did not fire one of my plants so I knew there would be the fuel available to be on what I rightly guessed would be the last turn. I got smug at the end, building to 17 and powering 16, presuming I would comfortably win. I stupidly did not notice that Matt had the same capacity as myself. I reflected in the car on the way home and I think 2nd was the best I could get even if I had not finished the game, presuming Matt didn’t. Matt had me nicely covered and Dave with a good power plant purchase could well have taken me down to third.

Matt got a fantastic start with 5 cities lit using green plants alone. The longer we stuck on phase 1 the more his money advantage piled up. We did not stall for long but it was enough for Matt to bag a good amount of cash. Matt paid for what must be the longest connection we have ever had, I think it was $43 in pipe fees alone.

Settlers – 70 minutes

Mike’s commentary:

A very odd game with only me building cities (already had 2 before the 3rd round had completed!) until right at the end, whilst the others bought a lot of cards.  Richard was hit badly by a Brick drought whilst sat on a Brick port, I didn't buy a single card and won solely through 4 cities + 2 settlements, not sure whether we've seen that done at the Club before.

Medici – 60 minutes

Mike’s commentary:

Chas was hit badly by coming 4th in the commodity totals on the 1st 2 days, I was probably slight favourite going into the last day so Duncan's victory was hard-fought, with being the only person hitting the top of a pyramid being the decisive factor.

Animal Olympics – 5 minutes  bgg

Mike’s commentary:
Chas gains his first victory at the Club, now he's over the learning curve for some of our regular games I think he'll rack up a few more.

14th September 05.....................................................12 Players

There were 12 of us tonight which we comfortably split into 3 tables of 4. Gaming on Saturday was mentioned again. I suggest those interested contact Mike. The venue for the Saturday meeting will probably be at someone’s house, Mike’s I am guessing. If the numbers do get over 6 then we can approach Barry regarding hiring the room. I would probably not be available on a Saturday though if it looked like we needed to hire the room I would make an effort and try to drag Keith along as well. Call it a mini convention and we might get Peter over. For the sake of getting something off the ground I would assume it will be a handful of folk around a dinning room table and be pleasantly surprised if over 6 people show an interest.

Puerto Rico – 75 minutes

This is the first time I have got to play with Chas. Chas has had his plate full since attending the club for the first time last month with a new game thrust in front of him most weeks. I sympathise. I was dizzy with all the different games that I played when I first joined. It’s ok if you’re a bright young thing. Matt and Julian have sucked up every game they have been shown without any sign of indigestion. But most of us take time to digest what is going on in a new game. I confess that these days I rather like the combination of buying a game and learning it solo at my leisure and then playing it for the first time multiplayer with someone else explaining the rules.

Chas took coffee as his cash crop. He suffered for having no bonus buildings at the end of the game.

Duncan generated money via a factory. He had a fair number of corn plantations. His bonus building scored him very well.

Gordon. I had a great start trading a coffee the first time trader was selected. I felt flush with early money and I did a Toby and built a University as my 3rd building (1st small market, 2nd coffee roaster). 3 of my first 4 plantations were corn and I soon got the Warf with the idea of shipping boat loads of corn but it was not to work out that way. Mainly thanks to Duncan to my right I did not see another corn all game. I tried my best to finish the game early, by stripping out the colonists, when I saw the strength of Mike’s position.

Mike was up to his old tricks with a diversity of crops, a factory and a harbour all topped off with a Guild Hall. With Duncan sat opposite him also pushing craftsman / captain, Mike’s victory looked set from mid game.

Settlers – 75 minutes

From where I was sitting it felt like Chas had the best initial placement. There was a reasonable even distribution of resources and the numbers came out about how they should. Half way through the game we were all on 4 points with nothing to pick between us. Duncan later got the longest road with Mike always poised to take it off him leaving myself and Chas chasing largest army. The last round could have gone very differently if Chas’ 5th card, taken the turn previously from the development card deck, had been a soldier, getting him largest army before I got it and ironically giving the game to Mike who was about to steel longest road off Duncan. Mike, sat to my left, was not to get another turn because I played a 3rd soldier, taking largest Army and the game.

I have written down the scores as they were given to me but I am not sure Chas and Duncan have been correctly credited. Didn’t Chas have 3 settlements and a city?

Age of Steam – 150 minutes  bgg

I have a real problem with the production quality and poor visual design of all Warfrog games. To me there are too many beautiful looking games with good game play for me to bother with ugly games even if they have great game play. There is a new version of Age of Steaming coming out by Eagle Games (Railroad Tycoon) which will hopefully take the great game play and present it in a way that appeals to shallow gamers like me.

Dave D’s comment:

There are far too few beautiful games with good game play to ignore this.  It may be that Eagle produces a nice looking version, but their track record suggests that it will have a price tag of about £50 and you can call me tight if you like, but if all you are doing is prettifying something the extra money will not be worth it. In any case there is nothing really wrong with the bits in Age of Steam, being as good if not better than many games of the same ilk.

 

Dave C’s retort:

Comments on the Geek suggest that Railroad Tycoon adds plastic trains instead of wooden markers, adds paper money instead of coloured coins, jiggles the rules somewhat but otherwise does not significantly change the playing time or style. I think the quality of the bits in AoS is better than (say) the original HT 1829, yet look what a classic that turned out to be. Also, take Taj Mahal. Great pieces and colourful board; it oozes quality. However, if the bits were made out of cardboard and some bits of wood (and a brass curtain ring) it wouldn't matter; I'd still be crap at it.

McMulti – 90 minutes  bgg

Dave D’s comment:

I really like this game and have since Dave got going back more years than I can remember, despite the fact that there is a significant misprint in the English translation of the rules which we did not initially realise, which has a significant impact on the play of the game.

 

I can’t vouch for Richard, who did not have much comment, but Steve and Matt obviously didn’t seem to share my view and declared the game a simple dice fest in much the same way as I regard Settlers. I have to say that the game was affected by an unusual run of the dice in that we went a long period at the end of the game (I suspect it was over half the playing time) without rolling a double, this had the effect of causing stagnation, but as I say this was unusual. Matt also suffered in the game due to me forgetting a rule regarding selling installations.

 

I hope Dave will bring this along more often and we’ll get a few others to give it a try, if only to show that this playing wasn’t representative.

 

Dave C’s retort:

I'm in agreement with DD on this (not at all being biased because they are both my games of course.) McMulti was the second Eurogame I bought (the first being Die Macher.) I think the luck element is no more than in Settlers and also there are various other options you can explore. I played a whole game once without a single oil well as I bought off the market and others realised that they could sell their surplus stuff there. Going half the game without rolling a double is freaky but is really against the odds. Most games, this wouldn't happen. I’ll keep it in my bag for a bit.

 

Mike:

As DC says, McMulti was one of our very first Euro games.  As with some of the first records and books I bought, I sometimes wonder whether if I'd bought them 10  or 20 years later when more experienced in the field I would hold them in quite the same esteem.  I do still like the game, despite its' luck element, and have never been too phased by the frequency of doubles disturbing the underlying economic balance, perhaps because I've always tried to adopt a strategy that doesn't rely too heavily on one particular aspect of the game.  For example, I would never plan a strategy which didn't involve oil production, but if it turned out that way then I'd try to adapt and fortunately the game is flexible enough to allow that - many more lauded games I find to be too incremental (like St Petersburg) to make that viable, the time taken to adjust inevitably means you lose too much tempo to stand a chance of winning.  The one aspect of McM I don't like is the steep increase in costs for each successive oil rig - I always believed this increment should be per player, not across the board.

San Juan – 50 minutes

Dave Dudley has impressively managed 5 consecutive victories at this game.

21st September 05.....................................................8 Players

Tonight 8 of us split into 2 tables of 4. Again a long game of Civilisation on a Saturday was mentioned. We need to fix a date for this. As I am not going I will leave it for someone else to run with. Midcon is coming up the second week in November. Mike and Dave Cooper traditionally go and I do if I can make it. At the moment I am on for it work and family permitting.

I have got to borrow the free copy of Cash Trap kindly donated by Debbie. I should get a chance to play it over the weekend with the family.

Attila – 90 minutes

It has been 18 months since we last played Attila. I find myself keen to talk a lot about this game but it would all be rather uninformed waffle (not that that normally stops me) so I will let it go at least until I play again and can confirm some of my own feelings. I preferred playing with 4 than with 3 and I suspect with 5 it might be better again. Dave won convincingly as you would expect having managed to end the last two scoring rounds, nice one Dave. I jumped from way last to second in the final round. I am not convinced I made any meaningful decisions throughout the game, not that the game is pants it is just I could not get my head around what constituted clever play. The game ended because all the peace markers were used.

China – 40 minutes

Dave Dudley went all out for Advisors which nearly worked for him but because others would not join in on a similar strategy he could not quiet make the bonus needed to make up for the shortfall on his cloister score. I was pleased that the new scoring in China has not added too much power to advisors so the balance between advisors and cloisters has been maintained. It is equally possible to win by going single minded for cloisters, advisors or a balance of the 2. I do like clear cut and balanced strategies in a game. Speaking generally I enjoy games that deliver big whole game strategic options. The fact China / Web of Power offer this in such a neat, quick playing, package is credit to the design. I did not place a single advisor. Dave Dudley used everyone of his advisors.

Amun Re – 90 minutes