Erratic Explosion Domain

Extended deck

When I went to Gencon during autumn 2005 it was in the middle of an extended PTQ season. As I prefer playing MTG to VS I built a couple of decks to play over the 4 days. One was a slightly unusual Madness build (Thought Courier over Aquameba, Rushing River for bounce, and a couple of unusual tech cards), the other was a Domain deck.

Not owning any Fetchlands or Dual lands my Domain deck had a budget feel [aside: this was exagerated when I got a warning for marked sleeves during the PTQ. So anybody watching the top table would have seen that on turn three all I had in play was three different unsleeved basic lands - what a Noob!]

I owned the Deeds and Restraints and all that kind of stuff, but had to scrape around, borrowing several of my win conditions, and decided on both using Living Wish, and running an Erratic Explosion / Draco kill. (The following deck was untested and based on my underpowered collection: both the maindeck numbers and the sideboard cards could be improved)

9 Forests
5 Island
2 Swamps
1 Mountain
1 Plains (18 land)
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Etched Oracle
1 Bringer of the Black Dawn
1 Draco (9 creatures)
4 Collective Restraint
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Holistic Wisdom (8 enchantments)
4 Lay of the Land
3 Rampant Growth
3 Living Wish
1 Erratic Explosion
1 Tribal Flames
1 Cranial Extraction
1 Allied Strategies
1 Wandering Stream (15 sorceries)
3 Evasive Action
3 Wordly Counsel
2 Insidious Dreams
2 Putrefy (8 instants)

SB: 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Blinkmoth Well
1 Silklash Spider
1 Meloku, The Clouded Mirror
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
1 Loxodon Heirarch
1 Meddling Mage
2 Destructive Flow
2 Lobotomy
1 Putrefy
1 Wandering Stream
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ground Seal

This deck won me an eight man GPT, and got me a top 8 of a PTQ. And it was a lot of fun running one of those rogue decks that you hear players talking about between rounds. My third round PTQ opponent, as we chatted whilst shuffling for game one, mentioned that somebody was chucking was chucking Draco at people. I didn't tell him it was me. :)

G/R Anti-Affinity

Mirrodin/Kamigawa standard deck

In the last few years the only local tournaments I've attended have been pre-releases for the release of a new block and county championships. As I'm not exactly keeping up with recent releases building standard decks for the county champs hasn't always been easy.

This deck, mainly comprised of commons and uncommons was able to take me to a Top 8. The plan was to beat Affinity decks, and I defeated three in the swiss rounds. If only I'd kept playing the Affinity decks (there were four in the top 8, and the final was an Affinity mirror match) I could have been County Champ!

4 Hearth Kami
4 Tel-Jilad Chosen
4 Viridian Shaman
4 Orcish Artillery
4 Vulshok Sorceror
1 Glissa Sunseeker
1 Arc-Slogger
1 Molder Slug
1 Kumano

4 Shock
4 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Volcanic Hammer
1 Pulse of the Forge

11 Mountains
7 Forests
2 Shivan Oasis
3 City of Brass

U/G/R Threshold

Invasion/Odyssey standard

This was a deck that I played in a tournament for fun. It's not the worlds best deck, but it does have Millikin in it :)

4 Werebear
4 Millikin
3 Call of the Herd
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Centaur Chieftain
4 Beast Attack

4 Lay of The Land
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Fire / Ice
4 Aether Burst
4 Fact or Fiction

10 Forest
2 Islands
2 Mountains
3 City of Brass

U/B Upheval / Zombie Infestation

Invasion/Odyssey standard deck

The release of Odyssey was an odd time for Type 2 (standard). The American States championships would normally showcase all of the top new decks, but that year there was a Standard Masters event at the next Pro Tour, so all of the top pro teams were keeping back their best decks.

One of the decks that did break out from States was the combination of Zombie Infestation and Upheval. This is the version I played to a couple of tournaments. It was stupid good against control decks - by running Counterspell, Memory Lapse and Disrupt, you always won counter wars, and I managed to find room for main deck Mana Shorts!

4 Opt
3 Sleight of Hand
2 Disrupt
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
4 Fire / Ice
4 Repulse
2 Exclude
2 Mana Short
4 Fact or Fiction

3 Upheval
3 Zombie Infestation

3 Underground River
4 Shivan Reef
2 Shadowblood Ridge
10 Islands
2 Ancient Spring

At the San Diego Masters all the pros showed us we should have been playing Psychatog in our U/B decks, not Zombie Infestation, oops!

It was during the Odyssey block that my Magic playing really slowed down. By the time I decided to play Infestation / Upheval at a Odyssey Block constructed Pro Tour qualifier at Gencon I hadn't played for six months. Despite no playtesting I was in contention for the Top 8 until the penultimate round, when I dropped at 4-2-1, my final loss comming from a game loss rules infraction in game 3 against Bob Maher in a dead drawn position (we'd almost gone to time). I don't know if I'd have been in with a shot of making the top 8 at 4-1-2.

U/G Control

Invasion/Odyssey standard

The months just after a block rotation have always been my most succesful periods. I wasn't the best player locally (that was Tony Adams), but I wasn't far off, and I was probably the best deck-builder, so before all the 'best decks' were found and readily available on the web I could win with my own decks.

U/G control was born of a realisation that Beast Attack was incredibly strong in a draw-go control build. This deck has loads of card advantadge (Fact of Fiction, Mystic Snake, Beast Attack), ways to fight against Call of the Herd (Repulse, Syncopate, Disrupt), and a very strong late game from Holistic Wisdom and Bearscape. It won a couple of tournaments.

4 Mystic Snake

4 Opt
3 Disrupt
4 Counterspell
4 Fire / Ice
2 Syncopate
4 Repulse
3 Exclude
4 Fact or Fiction
3 Beast Attack

1 Holistic Wisdom
1 Bearscape
1 Tsabo's Web

4 Yavamaya Coast
10 Islands
4 Forests
2 Mossfire Valley
3 Karplusian Forest

Mono-B Suicide Black

Masques/Invasion deck

This deck evolved from the Big Black deck, over many months. It took a lot of tinkering to make a mono-black deck that worked in the environment at the time - able to fight againt both Fires and Rebels, but this deck had it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend Nationals Qualifiers with this deck (I was Best Man at a wedding that weekend), I would have fancied my chances.

4 Foul Imp
2 Nakaya Shade
4 Plague Spitter
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Phyrexian Scuta

4 Engineered Plague
4 Snuff Out
4 Tangle Wire
3 Despoil
4 Dark Ritual

4 Peat Bog
4 Rishadan Port
1 Dust Bowl
14 Swamps

Mono-B "Big Black"

Urza's/Masques standard deck

Another more casual deck that went 4-0 (8-0 games) in a small tournament I ran. This was inspired by a Dave Price Masques block deck.

4 Chimeric Idol
4 Complex Automaton
4 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Masticore
2 Cateran Enforcer

4 Rain of Tears
4 Befoul
4 Snuff Out
4 Vendetta
4 Dark Ritual

12 Swamps
4 Peat Bog
4 Crystal Vein
4 Rishadan Port

Mono-R 20/21/20 RDW

Masques/Invasion standard deck

This isn't such a serious deck - I threw it together inspired by various Dave Price / Dan Paskins red decks. When I needed a deck to play in a small tournament (unsanctioned or three judge, I can't remember) that I was running I decided to play this. My best deck at the time was Counter-Rebels, but there's no way I'm playing that in a tournament I'm running - it's one of the slowest decks ever.

This deck went 4-0, not losing a game. The transformational LD sideboard (4 Stone Rain, 4 Pillage, 4 Tangle Wire) was pretty effective.

4 Kris Mage
4 Raging Goblin
4 Goblin Raider
2 Firebrand Ranger
2 Rage Weaver
4 Orcish Artillery

4 Shock
4 Seal of Fire
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Scorching Lava
4 Rhystic Lightning
1 Urza's Rage

16 Mountain
3 Rishadan Port
1 Kelden Necropolis

Mono-W "Grizzly" Rebels

Urza's/Masques standard deck

I didn't come up for the idea for this deck - it broke out from one of the early european nationals that summer, but it quickly became one of my favourite decks - it's ideal for my preferred aggro/utility style of play.

4 Mother of Runes
4 Ramosian Sergeant
3 Steadfast Guards
2 Fresh Volunteers
4 Longbow Archers
1 Ramosian Lieutenant
1 Defiant Falcon
2 Lin Sivvi
1 Thermal Glider

4 Crusade
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Parralax Wave
3 Reverent Mantra
2 Arrmageddon

19 Plains
4 Rishadan Port

The high rare count reflects the fact that this was the most serious period of my magic career (I also had a set of Tangle Wires), but Rebels makes a pretty good budget deck. Replace Lin Sivvi with Defiant Vanguard or Nightwind Glider, and replace Crusade and Reverent Mantra with some mix of Ramosian Rally, Cho-Manno's Blessing and Brilliant Halo. Defender en-Vec replaces Parallax Wave (funniest use of Defender en-Vec: preventing damage to your opponents Academy Rector). There's obviously no direct replacement for Armageddon though, and you have to do without Ports, but it's still an okay deck.

Mono-G Aggro Enchantress

Urza/Masques standard deck

The release of Mercadian Masques saw the printing of Ancestral Mask, a creature enchantment that gave the enchanted creature +2/+2 for each other enchantment you controlled. With Yavamaya Enchantress and Rancor, this was the basis of a pretty good budget aggro deck that I played for a while.

I've always called this 'aggro enchantress' to seperate it from traditional enchantress decks, which were based around drawing loads of cards and 'going off'. This deck was always about attacking the opponent until they were dead. During the first couple of tournaments I didn't even play Argothian Enchantress!

But by the time of the Nationals Qualifier in Poole I had traded for them. This is the deck that went 4-1-1 beating Squirrel-Opposition, Ponza, Replenish and Accelerated Blue to qualify me for Nationals.

4 Llanowar Elves
3 Elvish Lyrist
4 Argothian Enchantress
4 River Boa
4 Yavamaya Enchantress
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Masticore

4 Wild Growth
4 Rancor
4 Treetop Bracer4
4 Ancestral Mask

1 Wordly Tutor
2 Creeping Mold

15 Forest
3 Treetop Village

G/R Sliver Beatdown

Tempest/Urza standard deck

This was the first deck I designed myself and played in tournaments after I left university. It's an agrro deck with plenty of utility (for example playing Mogg Fanatic and Elvish Lyrist over Jackal Pup) - basically the kind of deck that I've always preferred.

4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Elvish Lyrist
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Spined Sliver
4 River Boa
3 Mogg Flunkies
3 Uktabi Orangutan

4 Shock
3 Giant Growth
3 Rancor
4 Incinerate
2 Sonic Burst

4 Karplusian Forest
8 Mountains
9 Forests

Sunday 20/08/06: San Juan, Domaine, Dalmuti

Everybody seemed mighty relieved at the prospect of actually getting some games in on a Sunday evening. Or maybe shocked :)

Marleena, Fee and me started with a quick game of San Juan before Tony arrived. Marleena picked up the rules pretty quickly – it’s the strategies that take time to master. I got a decent Guild Hall bonus, and was able to win fairly comfortably.

When Tony arrives we start a four player game, so Marlena can play again. This game is a bit silly. Marleena built a Gold Mine towards the end of the previous game, but it didn’t work on the remaining three Prospectors. In this game I build one on the second turn, and it works on the first three Prospectors!! This gives me a huge advantage, and I go on to draw into a Smithy & Guild Hall combo as well. Fiona has a decent violet position as well at the game end, with a set of monuments, but it looks to me like I’ve won, particularly as I closed the game out quite quickly (including a zero cost Indigo build as governor when nobody else could build). The scores were close, 34 to 31.

Tony has one of those games where he doesn’t do anything particularly wrong, but he just couldn’t find anything that would give him sufficient points – Marlena and I had the Guild Halls, Fee had one of the City Halls and I held the other in hand for most of the second half of the game. He didn’t do well on monuments either. Combine this with the fact he began in the fourth seat, and he got to see why I don’t rate four-player as highly as two or three player.

After San Juan we play Domaine. Domaine is a game we played a few times earlier in the year, and we haven’t played it since. It seems like if I don’t bring it Fee asks why I didn’t bring “that knights and castles game” and when I do bring it we don’t play.

We are seated as follows: Tony, Marleena, Fiona, me. We follow the rule in the rulebook which says oldest player begins (though this is stupid as it means Tony always begins – need to remember to do something different next time), and Tony, Marleena and Fee are all able to place their castles by mines in three of the corners of the board. The fourth corner doesn’t have a mine, so I go for a mine adjacent to Marleena’s, with the idea being that I can enclose my castle using some of the walls she plays.

The second round of Castle placing sees Tony and Fee try to claim more mines, whilst Marleena makes the first move to claiming the City with a very central castle, whilst I place mine just off to one side of the city (in what would turn out to a very good position – not sure if this was luck or good judgement).

After the final round of castle placing, I begin the game [we had a discussion afterwards about whether the opening order is properly balanced – it seems to favour the player in Tony’s seat who gets to place castles first and play second].

As always the game begins with everybody making small Domaines containing mines, and expanding to gain adjacent mines. Tony rapidly gets an advantage in income, Fee is also doing well, whilst Marleena and I both spend some time playing Knights in adjacent Domaines.

This side of the board rapidly becomes very crowded. Marleena has the Domaine in one corner, with mine adjacent. Tony is in the opposite corner and Fee is between him and me. Marleena and I have both been playing Knights – she wants to expand into my Domaine, whilst I want to defend my early mine. I am able to claim a second mine (mainly because I get to it before Fee does), before losing my first to Marleena. Meanwhile Tony is expanding into Fee’s Domaine. After I get hit by a traitor card it’s obvious to me that my Domaine isn’t sustainable in the long term, and I start working on plan B.

The alternative plan is this: I have a Castle on side of the board nearest me, and it is the only Castle on that side. All of the Castle on the nearby edges have already formed Domaines. Therefore there is a possibility of making this into a very large Domaine.

This is a plan I have been working towards ever since forming my first Domaine on the congested side of the board. This began expanding towards the centre of the board, both claiming useful squares and placing boundary stones that will help to enclose my other Castle. I even put a couple of boundary stones in the middle of the board early on, in what appeared at the time to everybody else to be a random move. When my expanding Domaine meets up with these Walls, and a few turns later I complete a large Domaine worth about 10-15 points it doesn’t seem so random any more.

As nobody else has completed a Domaine so near the centre of the board, I am then able to expand into the Capital City. This sees me near the winning margin for a couple of turns, but it’s clear this isn’t sustainable – everybody has more knights than me.

Tony has spent the entire game with the best income, and also has some strong Domaines. Marleena has had good income, and managed to achieve a monopoly. I had very weak income most of the game, until I scored that large Domaine, which also gave me good points. Fee has had a bad position most of the game, she never had great income, got squashed between Marleena’s and Tony’s strong Domaines, and spent most of the game unable to really do anything. This can happen in four player games, where each player only has three Castles.

I lose some of my large gains to Fee, but an alliance card prevents Marlena from taking the City off me. I make a mistake on the final turn, selling an Alliance card for money, when I could have protected a couple of Forests from Tony. The money was irrelevant, as Tony and Marleena both have way more than me, although it made no difference to the final outcome.

Tony’get the bonus points for being the richest at game and wins the game, Marleena bonus for also being the richest isn’t enough for her to catch me, so she finishes third. Fee finishes in last place.

Domaine definitely works better with three than four (this is the opposite to T&E in my opinion). I haven’t yet tried it with two.

We concluded with a few hands of The Great Dalmuti. We play with the 11s & 12s removed as there was only four of us. There’s only time for three hands before I have to leave, mainly because we have two Great Revolutions, which delay matters somewhat. Dalmuti is a fun filler, but it seems like I have an unfair advantage, cause I’m card counting, and I don’t think the others are (or not as much as I am – surely everybody remembers basic things like if the Dalmuti has been played). In each of the three hands I retain or improve my position, which is as much as you can ask for in a game of Dalmuti (I was Dalmuti when the second greater revolution occurred).

After this weekend, it's re-enactment events for the next two. Argghhh! I'll be glad when it's winter and we can game every weekend.

What's been going on?

The quick answer is - not a lot :(

No board games on the last three Sundays due to re-enactment events and a wedding. Hopefully as we move into autumn these interuptions will become less common.

I haven't been able to make the last two weeks of Blood Bowl either, due to commitments on Thursday. The week before that the games started late and I ended up abandoning my game at 11:35pm after turn 7 of the second half. We had to rush the second half just to get that far, and after a TD had been scored I just didn't have the time to play a pointless turn 8 and do the post game stuff. I only went to make (I thought) make up the numbers - as it turned out there was an odd number of players - so to be honest I'd rather not have bothered. The league should be moving back to the normal venue next week, were games can start much earlier again.

It's been such a drought recently that I actually got persuaded to play some Vs a couple of weeks ago. It was okay, but nothing special. Now that Tony has got a set of Enemy of my Enemy (the strongest search card in the game) in many ways the game seems to have moved away from what made it so interesting to me in the first place.

Back when the game started the emphasis seemed to be on combat between the characters - deciding formations and attacks, and how to best utilise your plot twists to get KOs and breakthrough. It many ways it had managed to transfer the gameplay of limited MtG (which is normally much more interesting than constructed MtG) into a constructed format whilst improving it. There were problems with some games being blowout to a player not drawing enough, or the right characters but I could live with that.

In the last few sets the amount of deck searching that is available seems to have reached a ridiculous level, so that now games seem to involve searching your deck for the answer you need to trump the other guys deck. Possibly UDE realise this - one of the preview cards for Heralds of Galactus seems to be a playable extract effect (search your opponents deck and remove a card).

I've played some two-player Puerto Rico on a couple of evenings. Had a couple of games against Matt, the first of which I won easily, then in the second I tried some slightly different tactics, that caused me to fall behind early and I wasn't able to make up the deficit. I enjoyed those games and managed to persuade Fiona to play a couple of games a few days later. I won the first easily as well, and then in the second managed to make a complete hash of the opening turns and fall miles behind again! This time I was able to comeback and win, although Fee missed a move on the closing turn that would have left my large building unmanned. That would have been enough for her to win, but she was tired and didn't spot it.

Sunday 23/07/06: Alhambra, Hare & Tortoise, San Juan

It seems like ages since I last played some games.

Part of the reason is that it has been ages. The last Sunday evening was two weeks ago, and we had six players that night, and spent most of it playing Apples to Apples. Since then I haven’t managed to fit anything in apart from a couple of games of two player Puerto Rico and a round of Lost Cities.

This week Scott joined the regulars (Fee, me, Tony and Bekki). His favourite game is Alhambra (and the girls seem to love it was well) so we started with that.

I had one of those games were everything went perfectly. I’m pretty certain I’m the best Alhambra player in the group anyway, and I won with a score of 104, almost 30 points ahead of second place. At every scoring round I had a majority in Towers (it really helped that only one Tower appeared before the first scoring round and I was able to grab it), a majority or share-thereof in Gardens, and the longest Wall.

This game was the first time that I actually spent any actions redeveloping my Alhambra. I actually bought a Tower that I couldn’t place to protect my majority, and later when I bought another Tower with no wall, I noticed that instead of simply placing it, I could swap it with my only Manor (I bought it to connect all of my walls), and the turn after place the other Tower, both guaranteeing a Tower majority and extending my wall further.

After Alhambra we played Hare & Tortoise. Only Fee and Tony had played this before, and the rules translation Tony had didn’t seem to be the greatest. Having looked at some slightly better rules translations online we were definitely playing some rules wrong. In particular we were playing that you could move backwards to the next empty Tortoise space. At one point I moved back 16 spaces!!! [The reason for this was that it would let me move onto a lettuce space next turn - the lettuce in front of me was occupied.]

After my huge move backwards, I had a large amounts of carrots, and was planning to finish in a few large bounds, but it wasn’t clear whether Tony, who had been plodding along in first place would beat me there or not. I the end Tony reached there on the same turn as I did, but he was sitting before me and took first place.

We were a long way ahead of the other three. Although Fee says she really enjoys Hare & Tortoise, I think the game is strategic and calculational enough for Tony & I to have a large advantage. And once the field gets spread out a little, there’s less ‘multiplayer chaos’ than I would have expected. [This may be because we were allowing the large jumps backwards]

Scott, who had made some good moves early on, before losing lots of carrots on an ill advised jugging of the hare, finished third, and Fee managed to finish fourth eventually. Both her and Bekki had problems with arriving near the finish with far too many carrots.

Scott left after H&T, but we didn’t have time for either of the meatier games I had brought (Domaine or Tigris & Euphrates) so we played a hand of San Juan. I had nothing for the first couple of builds, so saved up for Silver, then built a Black Market. I also get a Smithy, so I figure I’m planning for some kind of Production plan, which is fortunate when I find a Guild Hall mid-game.

Coming to the final builds, it is clear the game is between me and Tony. Tony has been going for the violet plan, and has been using both Quarry and Poor House to accelerate his builds (he’s a couple ahead of me, and I’m a couple ahead of Fee and Bekki), and he has a City Hall. I suspect I might need to slip in a cheap catch-up production build to overtake him, but you don’t get much control in four-player. As it turns out Tony, as governor is able to close the game by building a Palace for 25+6=31 points, whilst my Palace leaves my score as 24+6=30. Very close!

It seems likely that after this weekend the next boardgame session may be some time off to various commitments.

Sunday 02/07/06: One False Step for Mankind, Apples to Apples, Alhambra

A bit of a different Sunday evening this week. I get a text mid-afternoon from Fiona saying Marlena and Becky will be there at six, and can I bring some counters for a game (in hindsight it should have been obvious that this involved playing a Cheapass game).

I arrive just after six, and we spend the next half an hour setting up One False Step for Mankind. It needs so many counters and tokens it’s ridiculous! Scott arrives before we begin, so we end up starting a five player at about quarter to 7, after both he and Fee (who have played before) have read the rules and failed to understand them. I end up speed-reading the rules and run the game more than they do, and I’d never played before. The idea was we were supposed to be starting early so Tony wouldn’t have to wait too long after he arrived about 7:30!

Obviously this doesn’t work (one of the games faults is that it takes too long), so we end up playing for about an hour, and then basically stopping. Fee announces Becky as the winner because she managed to send somebody to the moon! Personally I consider myself a winner at that point, as I’m no longer playing! Not a good game.

With Tony also present we need six player games. That’s a little tricky. We start with a quick round of Apples to Apples, which I win (or Tony won and I came second – can’t remember), and then we play Alhambra. I have Elfenland, which also plays six, but that seems like a game that takes twice as long with six than three players, unlike Alhambra where you’re still selling off exactly the same number of tiles. And everyone likes Alhambra anyway.

I get an okay start and am second or third at the second scoring, but collapse at the final scoring, when my two Towers (which was good for second place at the second scoring) gets overtaken by Marlena and Becky and I don’t manage to connect my wall at all. I finish fifth. Tony gets the majority in Gardens to move through to second place, almost catching Becky who has been leading most of the way. She is in a three way split for Towers with Fee and Marlena and has a good wall.

Alhambra isn’t great with six, but it’s useful to have a game that most people enjoy and can handle that many if needed unexpectedly. Most games wouldn’t (I only had Elfenroads cause it has loads of bits needed for One False Step for Mankind – normally I wouldn’t have any six player games).

Afterwards we just sit around playing Apples to Apples some more, lengthening the game to first to ten. Pete joins us this time, which is good for me, as I seem to have a very good understanding of his warped mind (who else would find Witch Hunts Fabulous, I also got him to pick Electric Chair) and I got four of my seven cards from him! Tony wins though.

I’m not sure how much you can read into the fact that the two most successful players at Apples to Apples were Tony and I, the two most serious gamers. Certainly everyone had fun, and it got very silly at times (some of us had been drinking). An enjoyable change from the norm – it seems unlikely we’ll have six players again any time soon, so it’ll probably be back to more serious gaming next time.

Blood Bowl 29/06/06: Dark Elves vs Goblins

The final update to the Blood Bowl playtest vault rules have now been issued (as Living Rulebook 5), and they’ve come at a convenient time. With my recent move to Newport I have more spare time, and opponents within walking distance.

The local league meets every Thursday, and has six players. Last week I started a new Dark Elf team with a bad matchup against the Dave’s Norse (I’m not really in a position to take advantage of his armour of 7, as with all of his players having block or strength 4, my players are the ones falling over). I really suffered with the injury rolls (of three casualties two were dead, and I made one out of eight KO rolls), so my team was somewhat depleted this week, with two journeymen required to make up the numbers.

This week I played against James’s Goblins. I get a dream start – I’m kicking to him and roll a Blitz! Two Blitzers are able to get tackle zones on the player under the ball (James had setup without wide tackle zones, and the ball scattered right behind the centre of the line of scrimmage) and after James fails to catch it, the ball scatters to one of the Blitzers who does.

The next six turns sees me slowly move the ball towards James’s end zone. A couple of times he is able to recover the ball, but he’s never able to protect it sufficiently, and I always have enough Elves around the ball to recover it easily. I would stall and score in the last turn of the half, but there is a Bombardier on the pitch (and James had already had one direct hit with throw team mate), making it impossible to get 100% safety, so I score on turn 6.

We both setup in a similar fashion again. This time the ball scatters wide. James throws some blocks, and seems to move everybody else before dealing with the ball and it costs him. He used all his rerolls in the first three turns, and turnovers without a tackle zone on the ball. I run in and pick it up (I still have one of my two rerolls left), then James provides a repeat performance next turn and I score probably the easiest touchdown I’ve ever scored.

2-0 at halftime, and I’m receiving, and the secret weapon players are gone (under the current rules they only play one drive). The second half kickoff is the first time the ball has been in my half, but it doesn’t stay there very long. I walk the ball into the endzone, the Goblins putting up almost no resistance.

The second half plays much like the first with me scoring another fairly easy touchdown. Only two really memorable events ocurred. Firstly, ones of the Trolls gets KO’d by a rock thrown from the crowd, and secondly, James had one turn left after I score for 4-0, and manages to make all the rolls needed for a one-turn, throw team mate touchdown. Very nice, and he probably deserved it. He did have some bad luck with some rolls I think, but he didn’t help himself by not always getting his priorities straight, so that when the bad luck struck, he left me in a good position.

Blood Bowl should be a weekly occurrence now I expect.

Sunday 11/06/06: San Juan, Lord of the Rings: Friends and Foes, Settlers of Catan

Tony and I went round to Fiona's on Sunday evening. It was still quite light, and the table inside was mess, so we decided to play outside.

We start with a couple of hands of San Juan. In the first game Fiona and I are both into trading (she has Silver and Well, I have built Tobacco, Well, Aquaduct and Trading Post), whilst Tony is the odd man out, though he does have the strong Quarry & Carpenter combo. Fee and I then also both build Prefecture, to make Tony’s position look really bad, but he is fortunate enough to find the final one a few turns later.

I have the sort of balanced trading / violet position where I’m happy to find either Guild Hall or City Hall. I find a Guild Hall, so I close out with all production buildings. Tony doesn’t find a City Hall but does hit Triumphal Arch, a couple of monuments and Palace for a two point win over me. Fiona’s position looks awful but she has a final build City Hall to not lose by too much.

The second game is really weird. I get a first turn Poor House, and then proceed to rapidly build a collection of one cost buildings, triggering the poor House each time. I get to my eighth build four (!!!) buildings ahead of both Fiona and Tony. In addition to all my one cost buildings I have a Coffee for trading and a Chapel that is helping to keep me poor, effectively providing free victory points. Tony is amassing an okay (small) collection of violet buildings, but he has a Palace as opposed to a City Hall or Triumphal Arch, and that means I can close with a score of 22 for a 2 point win. I’ve never seen that strategy work in a three player before (and I’ve only seen it a few times in two-player). My draws during the opening turns were ideal – it seemed that every time the Poor House triggered the card I drew was another 1 cost building.

After that Fee wants to play something that will leave time for another game afterwards. Tony suggests Lord of the Rings (with F&F expansion), I foolishly describe it as a “one hour game” and we managed to talk Fee into it. This game of Friends and Foes proceeds much as the last one, we start with Sauron on 15, are never really in any danger of dying to 8 foes, and manage to skip Helm’s Deep and Shelob’s lair without too much trouble. In fact the four foes required to skip Shelob’s Lair are the last four in the deck, so under the rules as originally printed we would have won at that point. Instead we are playing the variant I saw suggested on BGG where we gain the Watchful Peace card when we kill all the foes. (Note that if we had been playing the official Black Gate variant this also would have lead to a trivial win – three of the last four foes re

The final board is only interesting as we manage to bugger up who is to be the ring bearer on the Mordor board, and I end with the ring, despite being the only one anywhere near Sauron, who is still on 14. Still we still have Gandalf’s Healing and the OOO Feature card, so we were never in too much danger, and sure enough we get near the summit, I put on the Ring and use Gandalf to automatically move four spaces, and we reach the summit and win.

Somehow Friends and Foes feels easier than the regular game. I think part of this is due to the fact that with Sam’s new ability and the new Gandalf card ‘Sauron does not advance’ you can effectively cancel three events, rather than just one. Gandalf cards that used to be quite important like ‘double wild’ and ‘draw four cards’ aren’t always needed any more.

Of course the game took much longer than one hour and by the end the light was failing badly (we were playing in the garden), which made it hard to see what was going on, which had a negative impact on the game I think. It’s hard for everyone to be involved when they can’t see what’s going on. Not a great gaming experience.

It’s getting late by then, so the only way we’ll have time for another game is if I stay outside and clear up LotR whilst Fee and Tony go inside, clear some room and setup something else. When I get inside they’re setting up Settlers of Catan.

I’d never played Settlers before, and based on this game I don’t particularly want to again. Trading & negotiation isn’t a mechanic I particularly enjoy, so for me it was just an hour of sitting around, rolling dice, occasionally trading when somebody made an offer that tempted me. My interest diminished even further during the game when it became apparent we weren’t going to finish in time, and I was in last place anyway. Sure enough we didn’t finish. A lame finishing to an overall sub-par evening. And we won’t be able to play for the next few weeks probably (more re-enactment events).

Sunday 04/06/06: Flea Circus, Lord of the Rings Friends & Foes, Starbase Jeff

Fiona was away again this weekend, but this time Bekki, Tony and I managed to get ourselves organised, and they come round for games on Sunday evening.

We start with a few hands of Flea Circus to get us in the mood. I win the first, Bekki wins the second when I call the gala show early but with poor cards, and I won the third. Over the three games Bekki actually has the highest score, but the rules don’t mention adding the scores, so I win 2-1 I guess? Either way Tony’s last.

After that we’re ready for something more serious, except Bekki wants to play something not too difficult that we’ve played before, cause she’s not feeling up to anything harder (I think she might have got a bit too much sun during the day). We settle on Lord of the Rings with the Friends and Foes expansion. I get out the Lord of the Rings box and then leave the room to make some more tea.

When I get back a few minutes later I find they’ve got as far as taking off the lid, removing the main board, Sauron and the One Ring. That’s it! So I spend the next five minutes setting up the game, and explaining the Friends and Foes additions. We start with Sauron on 15 (as is recommended when playing with F&F for the first time), Bekki is Frodo, I’m Sam and Tony is Pippin. Merry and Fatty get left behind again.

We failed to complete Bree, mainly because we had trouble avoiding get overrrun with foes after some [][] roles on the dice. We avert a complete disaster though, as I have a surfeit of Hiding Hobbit cards, so we are actually able to pay the 7 Hiding required to avoid @@@ on the final event. (Going straight from the Shire into a game board feel really weird the first times you play F&F – you’re so used to having Rivendell goodies when you face the first board in the regular game).

We just survive Moria, fleeing with the power of the Ring, just before things get too bad. At this point I as Sam, am incredibly corrupt (about 6 or 7) mainly because I keep taking damage to kill foes (I’m Sam after all so it seems best I do it), whilst Tony as Pippin has barely been corrupted at all.

During Isengard our plan is to clear out the Foes so we can skip Helm’s Deep & hopefully Shelob’s Lair. Killing off the foes is easy enough, but requires a bit of thought to make sure you end the board with exactly none in play. You wouldn’t want one to appear on the last turn and be unable to kill it, letting all your hard work go to waste. We avoid any such mishap, and are able to skip Helm’s Deep. This reveals four new foes, which Bekki, as the new Ring-bearer needs to kill off between boards to let us skip Shelob’s Lair as well. With the power of Gandalf’s Firestorm, this is achevied, and we skip Shelob’s Lair.

Coming into Mordor, nobody is looking too healthy, but we still have plenty of stuff left – enough shields to call on Gandalf several times, my power to cancel an event, and Bekki still has the OOO feature card in hand. It is apparent though that it would be trivial for us to gain a Military Victory – the four foes revealed when we skipped Shelobs Lair where the last four in the deck. I had mentioned previously that Military Victory was apparently too easy, and we all agreed that we would just ignore the foes for the last board (I couldn’t remember what the Black Gate card did exactly).

As it turns out we in fact have more than enough stuff to make it to Mount Doom, as we get most of the way and then I spot that Bekki can put on the Ring & call on Gandalf to take no damage and make the move four squares, which will bring her to Mount Doom, and the OOO card means she can’t die when trying to lob in the One Ring – so we win!

We end the evening with a couple of hands of Starbase Jeff. Supposedly this is a tile-laying / gambling game. It seems like it has some interesting mechanics, but fails to actually turn them into a game. That seems to be the conclusion of my geekbuddies as well, but a surprising large number of people seem to rate the game as one of the best from Cheapass (depending on your point of view that still may not mean much). Perhaps there is something there. Tony seems to always have it with him, so I’ll guess I’ll get the chance to find out soon enough.

Update

I've been busy at work, and the home computer stopped working over the bank holiday weekend, so it's been a while since I've managed to write anything.

I managed to play a couple of games of San Juan against Matt during lunch hours at work last week, a couple of fairly easy wins.

I couldn't arrange any major boardgame sessions over the long weekend (Fiona away, two of the Matts doing DIY), so went round to see Matt Saturday evening for Beers & Games (Cider & Games in my case).

We started with a two-player Louis XIV. Two player seems a lot more relaxing than four player, as you can just play directly against your opponent without everyone else messing up your plans. And obviously the downtime is much reduced. I managed to complete one more mission than Matt, but he had way more shields, and took the win.

We then tried Babel, which I picked up in a trade recently. It didn't really grab either of us, we both blew some stuff up, got to the end of the Temple Pile, and that was that. Matt won. I suspect there must be a good game in there somewhere (my geekbuddies rate it highly), but I'm not sure I'll find it. I have too many other games I'd rather play two-player, so Babel has hit the trade list.

We finished with a game of San Juan, I got an awful start, everything I tried to do to get back into the game Matt countered (ie I build a Tower, his next build is Chapel), and couldn't find decent VP buildings. With some really tight play at the close I am able to force Matt to use his Crane to build both the City Hall and Triumphal Arch, to only lose by 13 points! (funniest thing all evening: Matt picks Builder, and build a Prefecture. I also build, and then Prospect. Matt says "well I have a Prefecture, so it's obvious what I do here", and picks Councillor. I keep both cards, Matt says "aren't you discarding one?" and I point to the Prefecture I built when he did! - he was so happy to supposedly have the Prefecture advantage, he didn't look at what I was doing).

After that I've had too much to drink for more games, so we sit around watching Scuzz until it's time for my bus.

Finally, last night, I was supposed to go round to Fiona's for some Carcassone: The Castle, and then "we might go the pub late on" (it's open mic night, and if you go late you miss the really awful singer), but it didn't quite work out that way. She & Pete got dragged to pub for dinner, so I met them there, and we ended up playing drunken Carcassone in the back of the pub at 11. And I won twice, which is unheard of for Carc.

Tuesday 23/05/06 Carcassone the Castle, Gin Rummy (& San Juan)

Fiona was eager to play some Carcassone the Castle, but we didn’t manage to fit it in last weekend, so when my plans to go to the cinema fell through, we managed to fit a few games in.

In a huge break with tradition I absolutely ran away with the first game. I got an absurdly lucky sequence of roads to begin with (the crossroads with a well in the centre, followed by three road ends!) and am able to pick up several bonus tiles. Fee looked like making a comeback when she scores 24 with a Tower x2 tile, but I still win comfortably.

Normal service is resumed in game 2. Fee has a pair of Market bonus tiles, and easily wins the Keep bonus for the win.

Game 3 looks close, but I’m relying on a large road network, with a Well (I have an Incomplete Road bonus tile, so I’ll score it even if it doesn’t complete). But just before the end Fee is able to also get a Meeple onto it, and I’m not able to get a second on before the game end. That’s about 20 points gone, and I lose.

After that I teach Fee Gin Rummy. The rules are pretty simple (for anyone who has ever played any game of Rummy before) , even if they gameplay isn’t (you really need to make some effort to remember what the other guys been doing). I blow the first hand by knocking with a score of 10 far too late, and Fee is able to undercut me. She wins the next as well, but I then get three large wins, including a very early Gin that catches her with about 40 points in hand, to take the first game (game is typically 100-up).

The second game goes the other way, I take an early lead, she then catches up, and after a few hand we both have scores in the 70’s. She takes a small win to take her into the 80’s, and in the next hand she gets a very early Gin, to take the game.

We have time to close with a quick game of San Juan before I leave. I get a poor start, don’t see any six-pointers, and Fiona doesn’t make any mistakes to beat me by about 10 points.

Introversion

Everyone who knows me would tell you that I’m a quiet, reserved person. There is a reason for this.

My name is Simon, and I am an introvert.

Anybody who wants to know what that really means should read the following article.

I can still remember reading that article for the first time (I found it via a link on Neal Stephenson’s website) and thinking – “wow, that’s me” (but not exactly, I can actually get along fine with some extroverts who I like in a 1-on-1 situation – I create a void that they will quite happily fill, and they’re either too self absorbed to notice that I’m just listening without contributing to the conversation, or are aware that I’m quite happy to just listen).

I hadn’t realised until recently how my behaviour online mimics my behaviour ‘in real life’. In a large social group (such as BGG) I’ll tend to stay on the sidelines just listening. Despite the fact that I’ve been reading BGG daily for two and a half years now I have made approximately 167 posts - an average of a post every five and a half days!

Conversely I’ll eagerly get involved in a discussion about somebody’s blog. From reading their blog it feels like I know them, and I’ve no problem having a discussion on an interesting topic with somebody I ‘know’.

Sunday 21/05/06: Louis XIV, Ticket to Ride, High Society, San Juan

For the first time in what seems like ages we have a regular Sunday night of games. (me, Tony, Becky and Fiona at Fiona’s) Happy days!!!

We start by trying to learn Louis XIV. I think I do an okay job explaining the rules, considering there so much going on, and we didn’t have any serious rules problems or queries during the games, although people’s heads were exploding during the game trying to take in all the possibilities.

As I would expect with a first play of a game with so much going on (and Tony’s playing slowly as well, including a couple of long thinks followed by moves which are instantly retracted – god, that’s annoying), the game goes on for a long time (over 2 hours), and starts to drag a bit for Becky and Fee towards the end.

Fee comments that she doesn’t mind games that are hard work if they are fun, but it was obvious she was getting bored by the end. I think Tony and I find games like this fun because they are hard work, but that not obviously going to be the case for everyone.

Tony seems to be winning (he completes two difficult missions in the second round, which gives him a couple of strong powers), but as with Goa (also a Rudiger Dorn game) at the end, despite all the gameplay, and Tony’s endless thinking the scores are in fact incredibly close. Everybody has completed six missions, so it comes down to Shields, and Tony just beats Becky and me.

After that we need something lighter, so we decide to play Ticket to Ride (it makes a change from Alhambra). I get an okay set of starting tickets (Portland – Phoenix, Portland – Nashville), until the opening trains all appear in the Southwestern corner, and after claiming Portland – San Francisco I’m blocked out of the direct route into Phoenix. So I have to regroup, and head across the country via Seattle and Helena.

The thing that annoys me about TTR in real-life (as opposed to online) is that the little cards are so fiddly. Optimum play often involves collecting a load of them, which are awkward to hold, the colours aren’t the clearest, and somebody has to go to the trouble of constantly replenishing the display of wagon cards available, and passing cards to those who can’t reach them. Tonight that person was me – it does keep the game flowing, but leads to one mistake when I make my move too quickly, taking cards when I should have claimed Oklahoma City – Little Rock, that would have cost me if Fiona had stolen it (she didn't).

After this possible detour is avoided I’m able to complete my route into Nashville. It’s clear that I should be able to get into Phoenix from Denver without problems, so now I decide to concentrate on collecting set of wagon cards to score some 15point connections. The key moment (as it turns out) comes when I decide not to block Becky. She has Los Angeles – El Paso – Houston, and then claims Miami – New Orleans. (she already has Miami – Charleston. I could have (& should have) blocked Becky by taking Houston – New Orleans, but I mistakenly thought “blocking is rarely effective in four player”. This is incorrect reasoning – at the time Becky and I probably had the best positions, so I should block Becky, as she is in fact my direct opponent. (Note to self: do not underestimate Becky just because she displays too much cleavage and is almost innumerate). [Actually, I think I may have underestimated the importance of this play because Becky’s score at the time was incorrect – we discovered she was someway short at the end, when we recalculate the scores]

I end the game as quick as I can (completing a couple of 15 point routes and connecting from Denver into Phoenix), but it’s not quick enough to catch anyone with incomplete tickets – I’m one turn off stranding Tony with –20 points. By the end Becky has completed one large line of routes along the South and up the Western coast, and the 10 point bonus is just enough for her to beat me by a couple of points. Fiona is last, which disappoints her, but she had awful tickets, one semi decent ticket and a tiny 6 point ticket up the Western coast, that you have to complete by claming tiny connections, worth very few points.

Next time I see her I’ll have to explain the plan involving ignoring such tickets and playing to score 15 point routes and finish the game. I’m sure that would have been a better plan in her position.

After Ticket to Ride, to Becky and Fee’s obvious disappointment there isn’t enough time left to play Alhambra. Instead we play a couple of hands of High Society. The first sees Becky spend far too much early on a couple of Recognitions, leaving her very little to actually buy possessions with (she acquires the 3, but that only gives her a score of 12, which can easily be beaten). She ends the game the poorest (after also paying to avoid the Thief and Gambling Debts) and Tony wins.

The second game also starts with a Recognition, which I win. Becky then blows most of her money winning the 9 and the 8, but at least this gives her a total of 17, which she might be able to defend. This game goes long (the last four tiles are 7,10, -5 and the final Recognition), and is very close between Tony, Fiona and I. I win the 7, putting me in the lead, but then the 10 comes up, and Tony and I don’t think we can outbid Fiona, and the next tile ends the game, with Fiona winning. Becky is the poorest by a long way - $7,000,000 – but although I ended up with $32,000,000 I still couldn’t have outbid Fee for the 10, as I only had $1, $6 & $25 left. A good game – I think Fiona enjoyed it a bit too, although High Society doesn’t seem to be her kind of game. And it’s definitely not Becky’s kind of game – as well as too much adding, she seems to be unable to stop impulse buying!

Tony has to leave, but we decide to end with a quick three player game of San Juan. Nobody gets a dominating position, nor does anybody get totally left behind (which can be a problem in three player if both opponents end up doing the same things, leaving somebody odd man out), and the final scores are very close. Becky has twelve buildings for 32 points (Fee and I only managed eleven builds), I have a City Hall and Guild Hall for 33, and Fee has a City Hall and Palace for 35 points. Fee wins!

Now Fiona is away again for the next couple of weekends. Maybe we’ll be able to arrange something for the bank holiday Monday instead.

Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation (& San Juan)

After my week of suffering I was feeling well enough to pop round and see Fiona for a few games on Friday evening.

We started with me teaching her Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation. The basic rules are quite simple (movement, combat, victory conditions, special movement cases), so we were underway quite quickly. The real challenge in learning this game comes from the need to consider the many possible interactions of characters and cards (some of which aren't even properly clarified in the rulebook, hence I keep the six page FAQ with my copy of the game).

Anyway, I played the Good guys, with Fee the forces of Evil. As this was Fiona's first game, and my first game for ages, we tended towards the obvious moves, rather than cunning bluffs. So I ran around killing stuff with Gandalf, until he was taken out by the Orcs, Fee put the Balrog in Moria etc. My early Gandalf rampage and some good card choices have given me a good advantage, and it looks like Frodo can march unnoposed into Mordor, but I'd forgotten about the Flying Nazgul, who kills him. If I'd remember Fee had earlier revealed the Nazgul, I could have killed it by recasting Heroic Sacrifice with the Magic card.

So Fiona won, and seemed to think the game was okay. It's difficult to be anymore enthusiastic than that after just one game. Maybe it'll grow on her, maybe not. It might be slightly too analytical, although the unknown factors mean you can overthink things - a couple of times I made the mistake of assuming Fiona might work out was I trying to do and react opposing, but she didn't so I ended up trapping myself. Don't overthink this game against beginners!

After LotR we just play San Juan (of course). I can't remember the specifics of the four games, but two were blowouts, and two were actually very close, and I wasn't sure who was going to win, though I both edged them both by a few points. The large victories tend to come when I get a better start than Fiona, cause I'm utterly ruthless about not letting her back into the game, and will often rush out to 12 buildings very quickly for the win (such as one game this evening were my first two builds were Carpenter and Quarry).

The games were generally quite varied - I even won one game by building Well (which is actually an okay building) and both Trading Post and Market Stand (which are usually rubbish), all of which were useful. I guess most buildings do have their uses (particularly in two-player, which lets you try plans that would be unfeasable against more than one opponent). I won one of the games using Tower very effectively, and in another I had an okay Black Market (I found Aquaduct, but had trouble finding Indigo), and a useful Chapel. I've still never needed to build an Archive though, other than as a very cheap violet when Gold Mine wasn't available. It remains the black sheep of the San Juan family.

After four games we decided to call it a night. I suspect if I didn't have a girlfriend at home expecting me we could have kept playing San Juan all night. I haven't done that since playing Magic The Gathering all night at Cambridge. Two player San Juan is really that good!!!

P.S. The first draft of this post contained what could be considered a very revealing Freudian slip :)

No games :(

No games for over a week - I can't remember the last time that happened. There were two reasons:

a) Sunday was Walk the Wight, a 26.5 mile charity walk across the Isle of Wight. Nobody seemed to have much enthusiasm for games afterwards, I can't imagine why.

b) Ever since then I've had a terrible cold, so I've not been going out during the evenings.

I'm feeling much better now, so hopefully normal service will now be resumed.

Even more San Juan!

Fiona and I now have some kind of San Juan addiction. It really is a great two-player game. We managed to find time for two more games after her Systema class Thursday evening.

In the first game I start sensibly with a Tobacco, Fiona having no build. When I then also build a Well Fiona decides to drop a Statue. She does know instinctively that’s she not supposed to do that, and sure enough next turn she realises she doesn’t really have any good options. I then build another Tobacco and Indigo, and am able to produce two goods to none, whilst Fiona has a Prefecture. I then have both a Chapel and Palace in hand.

I’d been thinking that it had been a long time since I’d seen a Chapel used effectively, and as I have the Palace as well (which will turn each card discarded to the Chapel into 1.25pts) I decide to go for it. I build the Chapel, and then store a card almost every turn. I’m pretty certain I don’t pick Builder again the entire game, I just dump my hand into most expensive thing I can afford whenever Fiona builds, and then refill my trading from my many production goods. If Fiona doesn’t build, I’m quite happy to trade anyway, even if it will take me over eight cards – just think of it as a Councillor in which Fiona doesn’t get to use her Prefecture.

Fiona builds a Black Market, which helps her with my repeated Production, and also a Poor House, which in theory is a nice combo with Black Market, but she doesn’t seem to get as much use out of it as I expected. Between my Chapel and her Poor House she should be trying to close out the game as quickly as possible I think. This is often a point that it takes beginners many games to understand – in two player don’t play to maximise your score by trying to assemble the perfect set of buildings, play to maximise the difference between your score and your opponents., so you’ll win!

By the end of the game Fiona has a decent collection of Buildings including a set of Monuments and an Arch, and both City Hall and Guild Hall, but it’s not enough to beat quite enough to beat my score, which includes an 11 point Chapel (the highest I’ve personally seen).
A very instructive game, but I don’t think the 11 point Chapel is a scenario likely to come up very often.

The second game I get a dream Violet position - my builds being on order: Prefecture, Market Hall (just before Fiona is about to do the first trade), Carpenter, Quarry, then Hero and Victory Column, City Hall, Triumphal Arch and Palace, before closing out with Chapel and Statue for a total of 50+ points. Fiona has been using Smithy the entire game, and has accumulated the biggest collection of Silver Smelters I’ve ever seen (six), but as expected the Guild Hall plan can’t possibly compete with a perfect set of violet buildings, and I win again.

Afterwards I point out to Fiona that (a) she forgot to Produce / Produce / Trade / Trade, which she needs to do to get best use her many production buildings, and (b) Smithy / Guildhall makes the smaller production buildings more efficient than building lots of Silver. In a way these are the same mistakes as the first game – concentrating too much on assembling the highest score she can, without worrying enough about what I'm up to.

More San Juan

Fiona was just round the corner with Pete at his mum’s house Monday evening, so I popped round for a few games of San Juan (Fiona seems to be too addicted to SJ to play anything else).

I win the first game fairly comfortably, starting with an early Smithy. I get a Market Hall as well, and am able to Produce / Produce then Trade / Trade (Fiona only having the starting Indigo). I then find a Guild Hall mid-game, and close out quickly with Indigos and Tobaccos for an 18 point Guild Hall. Fiona is going violet, but I was able to prevent her from dropping the Triumphal Arch she had in hand by rushing to 12 buildings - the correct way to win with Smithy.

The second game I get a solid start, with an early Well. I use this income to build several large production units and Monuments, and then find a Prefecture, to counter Fiona’s early Prefecture. Once I am able to pick Councillor without giving Fiona any advantage I do so repeatedly, as I need to find a large building (with my mixture of productions, violets, and monument, any will do). I find a Palace, which I’m about to build when a Guild Hall turns up. That’s my 11th build, and when Fiona fails to close out the game with me having six cards in hand I’m able to drop the Palace by picking Builder myself. I win this game as well.

Fiona realised after this game that she had basically stopped picking Councillor, once I built my Prefecture, and at the end of game she didn’t have enough good buildings because of this. She also had terrible luck with a very early Gold Mine, which only worked once during the entire game.

The final game I get an awful start. I spend all of my opening hand on a Quarry, but Fiona drops a Prefecture, and I’m unable to find any other violets worth building. I have a City Hall in hand, but drop a couple of buildings behind. My next build is actually a Hero - efficient in terms of VP, but I think you’re supposed to be developing your income with your third build. I struggle along like this, dropping a Market Hall to help offset Fiona’s production advantage, until I get a sixth build Carpenter. Now, despite my bad start, and Fiona’s huge income advantage (she has Silver and Gold Mine, possibly Prefecture as well, and is about to drop a second Silver) I’m right back in the game. I drop the City Hall, and as I’m unable to find any decent violets and am losing in terms of income anyway I rush out to 12 buildings with very cheap violets like Gold Mine and Archive (when you have Quarry & Carpenter they don’t cost you anything).

This plan is just enough for me to win by a few points. I really thought Fiona was going to win this game, but I didn’t panic, (it would have been easier to build some bad violets early on, just cause they were cheap), and even picked Councillor when Fiona had a Prefecture – I had to find something to build, to get back into the game.

I remember seeing a comment somewhere at BGG, that when somebody played against Andrea Seyfarth, that they couldn’t believe how often he would pick Councillor. But Fiona and I certainly can – I think it’s an important part of being a good San Juan player, understanding the importance of Councillor.

I have no doubt now that Fiona is a good San Juan player, despite my three wins. I really had to fight hard for these wins, and could easily have lost two of them. Fiona is just unfortunate that I’m an excellent San Juan player. I’m pretty certain she could beat anybody else we know in a two player game quite comfortably.

Sunday 07/05/06: San Juan, Lost Cities, Can’t Stop, LotR

Due to a variety of misunderstood and forgotten messages and mobile phone mast breakdowns, the plan for Tony and Bekki (that’s how she seems to spell it) to both come round to mine didn’t quite work out. Bekki came round, but Tony thought she wasn’t, and so didn’t bother coming. Oh well.

We started with a couple of games of San Juan. Bekki has played once before, a four player that she won with Smithy & Guildhall – and what does she get in our first game – Smithy & Guildhall again. Meanwhile I’m going ‘mono-violet’, with my first builds being Prefecture and Gold mine, and City Hall in hand. I get a Carpenter (but not Quarry), and am able to maintain equality with Bekki in number of Buildings, as she spends time building a Palace.

With both of us having seven buildings I could conceivably finish with the following, which I have in hand: Victory Column, Hero, City Hall, Triumphal Arch, Palace! (I have a Tower in play, which will let me build, whilst retaining the others, and already have the Statue). But there’s no way a Smithy / Guildhall player should let that happen – they should rush me out with quick production builds.

This being Bekki’s second ever game, of course she doesn’t know that, and so she wastes enough time producing, trading and dropping large production buildings, that I am able to play them all except the Palace. On the penultimate turn I discard the Palace to build an Archive, letting me just build the Arch next role, as the governor, with Bekki being unable to build. As I end up winning by two points, this was a pretty good move!

The second game is more one-sided - Bekki doesn’t get a Smithy this time! I get an okay start with Poor House and Black Market, and am able to find a Guildhall, for a fairly comfortable win, despite having to build inefficient Tobaccos and Sugars. Bekki cripples herself by building a Palace very early, and finishes with an average City Hall (she had built too many production buildings).

In games of two player San Juan between a beginner and somebody with 50+ games, the beginner is a huge underdog. Considering this Bekki did very well.

After San Juan, we played a couple of quick hands of Lost Cities. Bekki quickly experienced the Lost Cities angst of a typical opening hand, where every move either seems like a bad idea, or a gamble, depending on your point of view. She wins the low-scoring first round 24-18 (she had a nice 36 doubled in blue for 32 points, to offset her total of 3(!) in white, whilst I just had four lowish scores), but I dominate the second, with much the better of the cards (the majority of the eights, nines and tens ended up on my side of the table), for a comfortable aggregate win.

During Lost Cities I had done the scoring each time – I’m pretty good at mental arithmetic, and know the game, so it’s seemed easier that way. Consequently I’d don’t discover just how bad her mental arithmetic is until we play Can’t Stop. She actually has trouble calculating the possible totals you could make by combining different pairs of dice! With a bit of help from me pointing out the possible totals, she is able to win, claiming columns 6, 7 and 9. It basically all comes down to the Sixes, where she just beats me. I crashed out more than she did, which I lead to me being too cautious when it came to try and close out on Six, and she pinched it.

Bekki needs a solid diet of Lost Cities, Can’t Stop and Cribbage. That’ll cure her mental arithmetic ills. Or drive her insane.

We had more time than expected after the one game of Can’t Stop, (her boyfriend was unable to get away from some urgent business on World of Warcraft), and so we finished with a game of Lord of the Rings. Bekki had played this before, didn’t have much trouble relearning the rules, and soon we were off to Mordor to destroy the Ring. Bekki was Frodo, and I was Sam (the reverse of how Lucy and I usually play). We had a little trouble in Moria, (‘Fly you fools’), but did okay through Helm’s Deep and Shelobs Lair, until Bekki rolled a triple corruption on the dice near the conclusion. In Mordor we hit event three very early, with neither of us having a Heart token, and this was enough to kill me, and Bekki rolled triple corruption again, to leave her within one space of the Eye, and only one card in hand. Her boyfriend arrived then, so we called it in Sauron’s favour.

Friday 05/05/06: Schotten Totten, San Juan

I only got to play games once this week. I took some games round to Fiona & Pete's Wednesday evening, but the huge barbeque (I was pretty full after a large piece of pork and a couple of sausages, and then Pete put on a load of chicken legs), and copius alcohol proved too distracting (and Fiona and Scott couldn't stop fiddling with a large bundle of purple wool) .

So no games on Wednesday. But I managed to pop back round Friday evening, and we had time for a couple of games of Schotten Totten (which I got as far as explaining the rules to Fiona a couple of weeks ago) and a game of San Juan.

The first game of Schotten Totten seemed to be going Fiona's way - she won the first four stones. But you need five to win (or three in a row) , and I could sense that she might not win another. I was clear favourite on a couple of stones, one stone was blank and I had a strong straight flush to play, and for the other two stones Fiona was relying on completing single sided straight flushes, one of which I knew she couldn't - I had the required card in hand. I then draw the card she needs for the other straight flush, and am able to take the last five stones for a 5-4 win. Good game! (I am somewhat fortunate, in that Fiona has a straight flush in hand near the end of the game, but no unstarted stones on which to play it.)

The second game was a bit more one sided - after about ten cards Fiona commented that she'd already been "completely outplayed". I take a three stone to nil lead, and look to be winning at least a couple more. Sure enough I managed to win my fifth stone for a 5-2 win.

Schotten Totten really is an excellent game (kind of like a gamers version of Gin Rummy, not that Gin isn't an excellent game in it's own right). It's a shame that the production values of the commonly available version are so terrible. The cards have stupid artwork, the font isn't terribly clear, and the six colours include two shades of green. Couldn't the publishers think of six different colours?? When the gameplay really requires you to pay close attention to what cards are in play, this sort of niggles do distract from the enjoyment.

Lost Cities, another excellent two-player card game, suffers from the opposite problem - it's hugely overproduced. The cards are gorgeous and very clear, but far too large (Schotten cards are the size of regular playing cards, and so will at least fit in my pocket), and the the game comes with a completely unecessary board. Ideally I'd like to see both games with cards the size of Schotten Totten's, but the design quality of Lost Cities.

After Schotten Totten, we had time for one game of San Juan, which was a complete blowout. I had a much better start then Fiona anyway, and she wasn't helped by the fact my Gold Mine worked on the first two Prospectors. I got an early Carpenter and Prefecture and just ran away with the game, building a set of Monuments + Arch + Palace (despite picking Councillor most turns I couldn't find a City Hall). We didn't bother counting the scores.

During the games we had a DVD of Russian Martial Arts playing in the background (from the blurb "In the world of office violence, home invasions, hijackings & back-alley muggings, you must have the tools to survive"). Fiona is a proponent of Systema, but was complaining to me that she has a problem that all the rest of the class are men, and so some of them will go easy on her because she is a girl.

A lot of two player games have the property that if one player is better than the other (even slightly), they will tend to win most of the games (if not all). So far this has been my experience of my two-player games with Fiona. But unlike her Systema classmates, I won't go easier on her just becuase she's 'weaker' than me. I know whe wouldn't want me to - she's smart enough to play most games well and learn from my advice, and when she does win that makes it so much more satisfying.

And she can always kick my arse at Carcassonne (like pretty much anyone I play Carcassone against).

Monday 01/05/06: Puerto Rico, Goa, Carcassonne H&G

Managed to get in a few games with Matt & Dave on Bank Holiday Monday.

We started with Puerto Rico, with quite a few of the expansion buildings thrown in (Black Market, Church, Small Wharf and Library).

The opening of the game sees Matt & I both try to use Black Market to our advantage, but not to any great success. The plantation tiles give me loads of corn, so I end up being the heavy shipper this game. I almost miss Harbour, but luckily for me Dave takes Factory instead.

(This occurs because of the following scenario: I have been saving for Harbour, and can afford it if I take Builder. But this would mean passing over Trader with 2 bonus doubloons. So I do the trade, but now everybody has enough to afford Harbour, and my LHO, Matt, picks Builder, meaning I can miss the Harbour. In my position, heavy on Corn, but with no trade goods, that would be bad).

My lack of income continues to cause me problems, and leads to me missing out on a Wharf. I purchase Small Wharf instead, but in hindsight Small Warehouse would have been more effective. I am hoping to purchase a Customs House, but I don’t come anywhere near affording one before the game ends. Matt doesn’t get one either, but he has still scored considerably more in Buildings than me. Dave ends on two large buildings, but only one occupied, when we run out of victory points.

The final scores are very close
Dave: 48
Simon: 51
Matt: 52

The game is close enough that I probably threw it away with one really dumb Craftsman pick about halfway through. And the player who won was the player with both the Harbour and the Wharf. That is starting to annoy me about 3 player.

Afterwards we teach Dave Goa. (Matt has only played once before, but seems to have remembered the rules very well.)

Goa is a strange game. The economics are very odd, and the luck elements (getting good colony draws, getting useful expedition cards, and hitting expedition sets at end of game) can overwhelm good play.

At halfway I think Dave has the best position. But he makes some mistakes in the second half (miscounting the number of colonists he has available, leading to a bad miss, not properly appreciating that the triangular scoring rewards you for concentrating on maxi one or two ‘tech trees’, and not planning properly for the end of the game, particularly the most cash bonus).

I beat Matt by a couple of points, on some good cash management (I was tracking approximate cash) and an expedition card strategy that saw me end up with 8 expedition cards in hand! This worked as follows: draw up to my hand size of 3, then use the Swap tile to take the Three Expeditions cards tile, and then hit two Expedition card bonuses by advancing Ship Building. I finished with a triple, a pair and three singles for 12 points from expedition cards. It meant I couldn’t play expedition cards for most of the second half of the game but that was a small price to pay.

We end by playing a quick game of Carcassonne Hunters & Gatherers. As usual with Carc I finish last, although this time I don’t think it’s my fault. Dave & Matt got a long sequence of tiles that let them both score for completed river and forests every turn (& when they only had one meeple left each to add insult to injury). I got a sequence of awkward tiles, and couldn’t compete with that kind of scoring.

UK Math trade completed!

The UK Math trade at BoardGameGeek completed last week.

I've traded away Quo Vadis, Around the World in Eighty Days, Dos Rios and Tycoon.

I'm receiving: Louis XIV, Age of Steam, Babel, and Elfenroads.

Seems like a good deal to me. I got two of three games I really wanted (AoS and L XIV, the other being Santiago), and will no longer have to try and find room for Tycoon on my shelves.

Sunday 23/04/06: Domaine, Alhambra, San Juan

Another Sunday, another boardgame session! This week Becky joins us. Apparently she used to play, but hasn’t been around for a while.

We start with Domaine (the “knight and castles” game), which Fiona has been pestering me to bring again since we first played it a few weeks ago. I miss out a couple of rules during the explanation (we forget to place starting knights with the castle until about turn 3, and I forgot to mention about paying for knights in forests).

Everybody knew about the importance of starting round the edge, and gaining early income (which we all did), but Becky didn’t realise that the other main point of the game is claiming the large negative spaces that are left in the middle of the game, so she finished last by some way.

I was placing Castles last during setup, so I had less access to the external mines than the other players. So once I have my first mine, I concentrate on playing Knights onto my central castle to set up a high scoring central domaine. At one point Becky can screw me over before I complete it, expanding through the middle of it to cut off most of my points, but she probably doesn’t see it (she admitted afterwards that had trouble visualizing the empty spaces, which is completely normal for a first game), and I get to complete a high scoring domaine with four knights in it. My first prime target for expansion was Fiona’s domaine, but she has an alliance card, so after expanding into the Capital City I am forced to expand into Becky’s only decent domaine (feels a bit rude as she is the beginner, but I had no other decent choice).

Whilst I was plodding along with an income of 1 a turn (2 when I completed the central domaine) Tony quickly got an income of 2, then 3, and had 4 before the end of the game. He gets a decent large domaine, and has most money at the end for a five point win over me. (Fiona finishes second richest, but still a few points behind me).

I could have won on the very last turn, but Tony has an alliance card that prevents me from using my last expansion to get a Diamond monoply. Foiled!

After Domaine I want to play Ticket to Ride, to see if my extensive online experience (50+ games, almost all fourplayer), will tell in the real world. I’m pretty certain they won’t have seen strategies like “ignore almost everything except the six-train routes” and “complete your initial tickets, then ignore everything except six-train routes” (my favourite strategies for the original TTR).

But instead we play Alhambra. It’s the game that defines our group really; we always seem to end up playing it.

For the second time in the evening we bugger up the setup – this time everybody seems to assume that somebody else has dealt with the scoring cards, and they end up just randomly shuffled into the deck. I was in the toilet, so it’s wasn’t my fault!

The first round turns up almost all of the gardens, and goes on for slightly too long, before we get suspicious, and fix the scoring cards. I have a couple of majorities, for second place behind Fiona, who had Towers plus a huge wall. My strategy for this section of the game was not to waste money fighting over the Gardens, a decision that definitely paid off (I didn’t buy any throughout the entire game).
At the second scoring I go into the lead (I still have two outright majorities, and some seconds), just ahead of Fiona, but she just catches me on the final scoring round (111) with a huge wall (fourteen I think). Tony finishes third, and sadly Becky finishes miles behind.

This game is probably representative of our overall Alhambra results – generally Fiona and I tend to do the best I think.

I’ve now played Alhambra probably five or six times, and I developed a strategy that works for me, based on efficiently acquiring tiles that actually matter in terms of majorities (don’t buy stuff just cause it’s free!). I tend not to worry about building a really large wall, preferring to have a flexible city, with plenty of room for new purchases.

Fiona adopts a different plan – she tends to be more of a committed wall builder, as shown above. It works well for her.

After Alhambra, we have just about an hour before Tony has to get his bus, so we decide to play San Juan. Becky has played Puerto Rico before, and it’s not very difficult, so we’re underway pretty quickly. This time I remember to explain all the rules!

It takes Becky a while to fully comprehend what’s going on, but she has a really good early position (Smithy built & Guildhall in hand!), and is able to claim the victory by a few points from Fiona, who has a nice City Hall setup, but struggled to find good final builds (despite Councillor with Library double privilege!). Tony has an okay production position (Well & Aquaduct etc), and has both City Hall and Guildhall in hand when the game is about to end, but not enough time to build them both, and finished third. He probably underestimated how quickly the Smithy player can end the game. Once they’ve built the Guild Hall, they will quite happily build Indigo every turn if they can. I have a terrible hand all game, only seeing a Palace and Triumphal Arch very late in the game, and I’m only able to build them buy overbuilding with a crane. I get just over 20 points in last place.

I don’t think San Juan works particularly well as a four player, for two reasons.

Firstly, there just aren’t enough six-costs buildings to go around (this isn’t helped by the fact that Guild Hall and City Hall are so much better than the other two). If you don’t get one early you have to play flexibly, but then even if you do draw one you’ll still lose to the player who got Guildhall or City Hall early, and played to maximise it.

Secondly there aren’t enough roles - the ratio of three roles out of five that occurs in two and three-player feels right to me, as it requires you to think about what’s going to happen. With four of the five roles occurring every round, the balance seems off.

For four player card game fillers I’ll try to stick to High Society in the future.

I was going to insert a rant here about people who chat too much when it’s their go, but it was probably a bit mean-spirited, so I’ll skip it. [During the evening I actually swore at Tony - he’s slow enough anyway, without spending his turn chatting about comic books characters. This drew a shocked “Simon swore!” from Fiona, that being the point of not generally swearing, people pay attention when you do.]

Midweek games

Cribbage: Played two games against Fiona in the pub. She’s pretty new to Cribbage, and wanted somebody who knew the game to practice against. We played two games of six card Cribbage, 121 up.

I took an early lead in the first game, and have to give Fiona a few tips, (and some help with the scoring, which always flummoxes beginners). She is catching me by the end, and has the advantage last of not having the box. I finish up one point short in the play, and she is scoring first, and takes the game. The second game she has much the better of the cards and absolutlely smokes me, winning by about 30 points.

Backgammon: My chance for revenge after Fiona’s beginners luck at Cribbage came Friday evening, when I went round to see her & Pete . (I’m a decent backgammon player). Disappointingly the first game turns into a race, and I roll slightly higher, and win.

The second game makes up for it though. Fiona has the better of the early exchanges and I end up playing a back game. This isn’t something Fiona has seen before, so she makes some non-obvious mistakes, repeatedly hitting my blots, letting me establish two points in her inner board, whilst blocking off my own. Her final mistake comes when bearing off. She mistakenly leaves a blot, I hit it, and she can’t come back on before I establish a prime on my inner board! So it comes down to a straight race, and I just edge it.

After that we play a couple more games, both winning one each. Next time we might try a match (7 points) with the doubling cube, though I suspect she needs a few more games first.

San Juan: Fiona really likes this, so we played a few times after backgammon. Two-player can be really harsh on beginners, but after I beat her a few times I think my advice began to sink in, and she won the last game with a pretty good City Hall game.

After my victories at Backgammon and San Juan, we decide to play something I’m not very good at – Carcassonne: The Castle. I don’t know why but I very rarely win at any version of Carc, and sure enough Fiona beats me twice, the first time a rout, the second game is close, but I mistime the ending, leaving making impossible for me to finish both a large tower and a large house, so I miss out on the keep bonus.